Murry Salby

Murry Lewis Salby is an atmospheric scientist who focused on upper atmospheric wave propagation for most of his early career, and who more recently has argued against aspects of the scientific consensus that human activity contributes to climate change.^[1]

From the mid 1980s, Salby conducted research out of University of Colorado Boulder. In 2005, the National Science Foundation opened an investigation into Salby's federal funding arrangements and found that he had displayed "a pattern of deception [and] a lack of integrity" in his handling of federal grant money.^[2] He resigned his position in Colorado in 2008 and became professor of climate risk at Macquarie University in Macquarie Park, New South Wales. In 2013 he was dismissed by the university on grounds of refusal to teach and misuse of university resources.^[3]

He has written two textbooks, Fundamentals of Atmospheric Physics (1996),^[4] and Physics of the Atmosphere and Climate (2011). The latter textbook, building on his first book, offers an overview of the processes controlling the atmosphere of Earth, weather, energetics, and climate physics.^[5]

Education and career

Salby received his Bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering in 1973, and his Ph.D. in environmental dynamics from Georgia Tech in 1978.^[6] Salby's work focused on upper atmospheric wave propagation for most of his early career. He began as an assistant professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder in 1984, in a department which eventually became the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences. Salby became an associate professor in 1985 and full professor in 1991, gaining tenure in 1997.^[7]

In 1994 Salby set up a non-profit company to receive federal award funds from the National Science Foundation and other agencies for research in parallel with his research work at the University of Colorado, and in 2003 he formed another company as a subcontractor to receive charges for his efforts. Following allegations of an overlap between funding applications, the National Science Foundation began an investigation in March 2005. It advised the University of Colorado, which sought information from Salby but he did not cooperate with this investigation. In October 2006 the university produced its investigation memo, and suspended Salby's privilege of submitting proposals from the university as well as restricting his access to university research facilities. In 2007, Salby was on sabbatical in Australia. Before the university made its final adjudication, Salby resigned from his faculty position. The National Science Foundation investigation report issued on 20 February 2009 found that Salby had overcharged his grants and violated financial conflict of interest policies, displaying "a pattern of deception, a lack of integrity, and a persistent and intentional disregard of NSF and University rules and policies" and a "consistent willingness to violate rules and regulations, whether federal or local, for his personal benefit." It debarred Salby from receiving federal assistance and benefits until 13 August 2012.^[2]

After leaving Colorado, Salby joined the faculty of Macquarie University in Australia, where he was appointed Professor of Climate Risk in 2008. In May 2011, Salby's research showing that ozone levels over Antarctica had begun to recover since the Montreal Protocol banned the use of ozone-depleting substances, was published in Geophysical Research Letters.^[8][9] Salby's employment at Macquarie was terminated in 2013; his return ticket from Paris was cancelled by Macquarie, stranding Salby in Europe. Macquarie University stated that he was not dismissed because of his views on climate change, but for refusing to fulfill his teaching responsibilities and for inappropriate use of university resources including a corporate credit card.^[3][10]

Academic research

Salby was the first to document the influence of meteorological variability on long-term stratospheric ozone changes.^[11] This role of natural variability on stratospheric ozone depletion has inspired related studies and large research projects ^[12] and has been recognised in several WMO Ozone Depletion Assessments.^[13]

Bibliography

• Stratospheric Constituent Response to Vertically Propagating Equatorial Waves, Defense Technical Information Center, 1988.
• Fundamentals of Atmospheric Physics, Academic Press, May 23, 1996.
• Physics of the Atmosphere and Climate, Cambridge University Press, Jan 16, 2012.

References