Chemistry Alumna Susan Solomon Inducted Into IIT Hall of Fame

Susan Solomon (CHEM ’77), Ellen Swallow Richards Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry & Climate Science at MIT, was inducted into the IIT Hall of Fame on September 17, 2015, at a celebration in downtown Chicago.

[from left to right] Chairman of the Board Alan "Bud" Wendorf, Dean Russell Betts, Susan Solomon, and President Alan Cramb

Solomon was the leading scientist to identify the cause of ozone loss in Antarctica. She and her team speculated that harmful man-made chemical reactions could be responsible for the unprecedented losses of ozone never seen before. Solomon then led two U.S. expeditions to Antarctica in the late 1980s to collect observation data confirming this theory. Solomon’s work contributed to the creation of the Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer, a far-reaching international agreement to protect the stratospheric ozone layer.

In 1999, Susan Solomon received the National Medal of Science, the highest scientific award bestowed by the U.S. government, and she has a glacier in Antarctica named in her honor.