Georgy Golitsyn
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Georgii Sergeyevich Golitsyn (Russian: Георгий Сергеевич Голицын) (born January 23, 1935 in Moscow) is a prominent Russian scientist in the field of Atmospheric Physics, full member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (later of Russia), Editor-in-Chief of Izvestiya, Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics, ISSN 0001-4338 Since 1990 Director of the A.M. Obukhov Institute of Atmospheric Physics, RAS, Moscow, Russia.
In the 1960 he took to studying the atmospheric circulation on other planets. In 1969 he predicted the small difference between nighttime and daytime temperature on Venus and its high wind velocities. He also developed a model for study of dust storms on Mars. When the "nuclear winter" scenario was first published in 1982, he applied his model to the issue and confirmed the results [1] [2]. He was also able to show that severe forest fires in Siberia in 1915 had caused global cooling.
Golitsyn is widely regarded in Russia as author of the "nuclear winter" theory [3] that was further developed by Carl Sagan. He reported the theory at the first Meeting of "the Committee of Soviet Scientists in Defence of Peace, Against the Nuclear Threat" in May 1983. Golitsyn was elected a vice-chairman of this Committee.
In 1984 he participated in an expert group under WCRP to prepare the United Nations report “Climatic and other consequences of large-scale nuclear war”.
He is the recipient of the RAS A.A. Friedman prize (1990) for his works on “Study of the General Circulation of Atmosphere and Convection.” In 1996 he was awarded Demidov Prize for his geostudies. In 2005 he was awarded Alfred Wegener Medal of the European Union of Geosciences [1]. Academician Golitsyn is founding member of Sigma Xi Moscow.
