UCI earns national medal for insights on how Earth “breathes”

The Orange County Register

October 21st, 2008

By Gary Robbins

Diane Pataki

A UC Irvine plant ecologist known for her insights into how urbanization affects ecosystems and how those impacts can in turn affect Earth’s climate has been given the James Macelwane Medal, the prestigious award the American Geophysical Union confers on top scholars under the age of 36.

Diane Pataki broadly studies Earth’s landscape, but she specializes in the basics of how and why plants and soil release water and gases into the atmosphere. It’s a fundamental part of how Earth breathes in the sense that plants and soil absorb and release gases and water.

The Macelwane Medal has been awarded since 1962 and has gone to many scientists who became famous in their fields. The recipients include Jim Brune, a pioneering authority in how faults produce earthquakes, Susan Solomon, who earned the National Medal of Science for helping explain how a various chemicals damage the ozone layer, and Harvard’s Michael B. McElroy, whose ozone studies helped lead to the creation of the Montreal Protocol. The medal also was given to Ralph Cicerone, another major figure in climate change research. Cicerone later became chancellor at UCI and is now president of the National Academy of Sciences.