Veerabhadran Ramanathan

Veerabhadran Ramanathan discovered the greenhouse effect of CFCs and numerous other manmade trace gases in the 1970s. He correctly forecast in 1980, along with R. Madden, that the global warming due to carbon dioxide would be detectable by the year 2000. He has worked with NASA to demonstrate the cooling effect of clouds on the planet, and the impacts of 'brown' clouds and greenhouse gases on rainfall, harvests of different types of crops, and the melting of glaciers. Ramanathan currently chairs the UNEP‐sponsored ABC Project with science team members from the US, Europe, India, China, Japan, Korea and other Asian countries. He is the recipient of the American Meteorological Society’s Rossby medal. He is a member of the American Philosophical Society, the National Academy of Sciences, the Academia Europea and the Third World Academy of Sciences. He currently chairs the US National Academy of Sciences panel that provides strategic advice to the US Climate Change Science Program (CCSP