On Climate, Air, and Human Welfare: Considering Joseph Priestley’s Scientific Legacies – A Conversation with Veerabhadran “Ram” Ramanathan

Join the American Philosophical Society and Scripps Institution for Oceanography for a public conversation with climate scientist Dr. Veerabhadran “Ram” Ramanathan (APS 2006) on how early observations about the “air” continue to inform scientific understanding of the interrelationship between climate and human well-being. Dr. Ramanathan is Distinguished Professor (emeritus) of Climate Sustainability at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California at San Diego and currently a Cornell Climate Solutions Scholar at Cornell University.  In 1975, he discovered the greenhouse effect of chlorofluorocarbons and other heat trapping pollutants; since then, he has led numerous international research projects and campaigns addressing the impacts of global warming and climate change.

This conversation considers Dr. Ramanathan’s work in relation to the scientific legacy of Joseph Priestley, an 18th-century political philosopher, Unitarian minister, and pneumatic chemist whose experiments with different types of air helped identify, among other things, the gases now known as oxygen and carbon dioxide. An advocate for independent thinking in science as well as religion and politics, Priestley was also a strong supporter of the American Revolution and spent the last decade of his life living and working near Philadelphia. Taken together, Priestley’s ideas offer useful touchpoints for reflecting on the ways ideas about science, politics, and society have shaped one another both in the 18th century and in the present.

This conversation is part of “America’s Scientific Revolutionaries," a two-year initiative funded by the Richard Lounsbery Foundation highlighting the work of lesser-known scientists and physicians active during the Revolutionary era. You can learn more about this project here.

This event will be held onsite at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, CA. 

This event is free and open to the public. Please register to attend this event in person. Please note that the event times reflect Pacific Standard Time. 

Dr. Ramanathan is the Distinguished Professor (emeritus) of Climate Sustainability at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California at San Diego; and Cornell Climate Solutions Scholar at Cornell University. His findings on super pollutants (Methane, HFCs, Ozone and black carbon) have led to several successful climate mitigation actions worldwide, including the formation of Climate and Clean Air Coalition by the United Nations to mitigate these pollutants and the creation of the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal protocol.

He served as the science advisor for Pope Francis' Holy See delegation to the 2015 UN Paris climate summit and the 2016 UN climate summit in Marrakech. He also advised CA Governor Jerry Brown on Climate Actions. In 2023, coedited and coauthored a book on Resilience Of People and Ecosystems Under Climate Stress, published by the Vatican Press. With two of his Pontifical Academy Colleagues (Profs. Joachim von Braun and Marcelo Suarez-Orozco), he arranged a summit of Mayors and Governors at the Vatican in May 2024 to produce a Planetary Climate Resilience Protocol and followed it with series of sub-national summits around the world.

He has received many global honors including the most prestigious awards given for climate research: The 2026 Crafoord Prize given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences; the 2025 Grand Medaille given by the French Academy of Sciences. He is an Elected member of Pontifical Academy of Science (council member); Royal Swedish Academy of Science (which awards the Nobel prizes), the American Philosophical Society (APS 2006) and the US National Academy of Science; and received the Honorary Doctor of Science degree from UMASS Boston in 2023.