Global warming, physical systems interplay jointly honored
The 2021 Nobel Prize in physics was awarded jointly to Syukuro Manabe and Klaus Hasselmann “for the physical modelling of Earth’s climate, quantifying variability and reliably predicting global warming,” and Giorgio Parisi “for the discovery of the interplay of disorder and fluctuations in physical systems from atomic to planetary scales.”
Manabe and Hasselmann were honored for trying to explain the complexities of the Earth’s climate and the impact of variability in weather over long periods of time, while Parisi was honored for his work examining the changing landscape of material states, impacting a broad swath of physical systems.
When asked about the link between the two winning prizes, the Nobel Committee emphasized that without the ability to analyze the chaos of fluctuations/disorder, we cannot predict the changes in the climate, and they are sending a message to world leaders to act now on climate change.
Additional information can be found at this dedicated AIP Nobel Prize Resources Page.
Articles published by the Nobel prize winners in AIP Publishing journals have been made freely available to read for a limited time.