He discovered the ozone hole, and now Nobel laureate in chemistry, Paul Crutzen, has died

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Atmospheric researcher Crutzen in 2012 next to a model of the earth

Photo: Sämmer / imago images

"We cannot wait 50 years," said Paul Crutzen in a 1988 SPIEGEL conversation about the climate problems that will come to mankind in the coming decades.

Today the interview reads like one great and wise prophecy.

The Nobel Prize winner in chemistry warned of the consequences of human activity very early on.

The Dutch atmospheric researcher died on Thursday at the age of 87.

This is reported by the Dutch broadcaster NOS, citing his family and the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz, where Crutzen worked.

For his research on the depletion of the ozone layer by chlorofluorocarbons (CFC), Crutzen was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1995.

He shared the award with the Mexican Mario Molina and the American Frank Sherwood Rowland.

Crutzen died in Germany in the presence of his family.

He leaves behind his wife, two daughters and three grandchildren.

Crutzen was born in Amsterdam in 1933.

In the 1960s and 1970s, he investigated the influence of nitrogen oxides on the ozone layer - and, together with Molina and Rowland, predicted that this layer would be greatly reduced by man-made CFCs.

The use of CFCs in refrigerators and air conditioners was then banned.

From 1980 to 2000, Crutzen was Director of the Atmospheric Chemistry Department at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz.

The President of the Max Planck Society, Martin Stratmann, praised Crutzen as a pioneer.

“He was the first to show how human activities damage the ozone layer.

This knowledge about the causes of ozone depletion formed the basis for the worldwide ban on ozone depleting substances - a hitherto unique example of how Nobel Prize-winning basic research can lead directly to a global political decision. «Crutzen was also a pioneer in the sciences that influenced human civilization would have looked at the environment.

According to the Max Planck Institute, Crutzen published more than 360 peer-reviewed scientific articles and 15 books.

He was one of the world's most cited scientists, has received numerous honors and prizes.

He was a member of numerous scientific academies such as the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and honorary member of the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.

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