This legend from india has single-handedly pushed the understanding of the changes taking place on Earth and its atmosphere.
His Scientific Contributions:
Proposed and led major atmospheric field experiments.
Developed highly sensitive instrumentation and provided key measurements in the atmosphere and the oceans using surface and airborne platforms.
Following are examples of contributions (made with colleagues) that have had a significant impact:
- First to detect and measure phosgene in the atmosphere.
- First to demonstrate that atmospheric carbon tetrachloride was of man-made origin, now a widely accepted view.
- First to propose and apply the concept of using methyl chloroform as an indicator of OH radicals to study global oxidation.
- First to discover that a large background of PAN was present in the global troposphere; developed new instrumentation and performed field studies to demonstrate its important role in ozone chemistry.
- Provided the first global measurement of important oxygenated organic species (e. g. acetone, methanol) and proposed a new source of HOx radicals from oxygenated species.
- Developed sensitive methods to explore chlorine atom chemistry in the troposphere.
His primary research goal has been to better understand the impact of human activities on the chemistry and climate of the earth's atmosphere through direct observations and data analysis. He has designed and led major international field campaigns towards this goal.
Relevant Awards and Honors:
- Distinguished alumnus of the Univ. of Pittsburgh School of Engineering (2019)
- NASA Highest Honor Distinguished Service Medal (2018)
- Finalist Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals (2017)
- Distinguished alumnus “225 medallion” from Univ. of Pittsburgh for bringing “honor to the University”,.
- Editor-in-Chief of the international Journal of Atmospheric Environment (1992-2017)
- NASA Exceptional Achievement & Leadership Medals (2009, 2005, 1998)
- Fellow of the World Innovative Foundation
- In the ISI list of 25 most cited in Geosciences
- Distinguished Alumnus, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.
- Fellow of the American Geophysical Union
- HJ Allen Prize for the best scientific paper (shared with Nobel Laureate P. Crutzen).
- Frank A. Chambers Award for "outstanding achievement in the science and art of air pollution”
- Ames Associate Fellow
Education:
Postdoctoral Fellowship: Environmental Sciences, Rutgers University, NJ, 1974
Ph. D. – University of Pittsburgh, PA. 1972
B.Tech – Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)- Delhi, 1968
He has studied the composition and chemistry of the atmosphere for the past 30 years and has published more than 220 scientific papers (h-index: 84; 21000 citations) and one textbook titled
"Composition, Chemistry and Climate of the Atmosphere"
Experience:
Co-Mission Scientist/Leadership Team –SEAC4RS (2013)
Flight Scientist- ATTREX (2010-2015)
Co-Mission Scientist –ARCTAS (2008)
Lead Mission Scientist- INTEX-B/MILAGRO (2006)
Lead Mission Scientist – INTEX-A/ICARTT (2004)
Co-Mission Scientist- SONEX/POLINAT (1995)
1985–Present: Senior Scientist, NASA Ames
Research Center, Moffett Field, CA.
1975–1985: Director, Atmospheric Chemistry, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA
He retired in 2018 and is presently active as an “Ames Associate”.
Dr. Hanwant B. Singh Doad is an acknowledged leader in the area of atmospheric composition and chemistry and has contributed major theoretical and experimental ideas to advance the scientific understanding in this field.
His professional life has been highly rewarding and the opportunity to collaborate with some of the best minds from several different countries has been a great privilege.
His efforts are chronicled in over 150 scientific publications. A textbook he edited is widely used in many universities. Many honors and awards have followed. He became the recipient of the Frank A Chambers Award for “outstanding achievements in the arts and sciences”, the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievements Medal, the H.J. Allen Prize (shared with Nobel Laureate P Crutzen) and was elected to be a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, and certain United Nations Commissions.
Born during the turmoil of partition, Dr. Hanwant B Singh Doad spent his early years in many cities with the longest stay in Dehradun, UP where his father was a government official. He joined IIT Delhi in 1963 and graduated in 1968 with a B.Tech. in Chemical Engineering with distinction. A generous fellowship from the University of Pittsburgh and a strong desire to see the world landed him in the United States within weeks of his graduation. He joined the Chemical Engineering Department of the University of Pittsburgh in 1968 and graduated with a Master’s and a Ph.D. degree in 1972. But that’s not all. While he was finishing his doctorate (1972), the US was in the midst of a major recession and Singh had other problems, such as a proper visa.
“he was thinking of returning to India when a post-doctoral position opened up at Rutgers University in the Department of Environmental Sciences. His first foray in environmental sciences was to perform lab experiments to investigate the fate of chlorofluorocarbons that were in wide discussion at that time,”
shares Dr. Hanwant B. Singh, who was behind many firsts, including the demonstration of atmospheric carbon tetrachloride having a human origin, which was initially not a widely accepted view. This change in direction was to follow with a stint at the Deptt. of Environmental Sciences at Rutgers University in New Jersey where he did a postdoctoral fellowship and also taught some courses,. In 1974, he was tapped by the Stanford Research Institute in California (at the time a part of Stanford University) and for a decade he was Director of the Atmospheric Chemistry Laboratory there. In the late 1980s, NASA was successful in convincing him to join the nearby Ames Research Laboratory and lead an effort in studying the changing global atmospheric system with resources that only NASA could provide.
Dr. Hanwant B. Singh is an acknowledged leader in the area of atmospheric composition and chemistry and has contributed major theoretical and experimental ideas to advance the scientific understanding in this field.
His professional life has been highly rewarding and the opportunity to collaborate with some of the best minds from several different countries has been a great privilege. His efforts are chronicled in over 150 scientific publications. A textbook he edited is widely used in many universities. Many honors and awards have followed. He became the recipient of the Frank A Chambers Award for “outstanding achievements in the arts and sciences”, the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievements Medal, the H.J. Allen Prize (shared with Nobel Laureate P Crutzen) and was elected to be a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, and certain United Nations Commissions. In 1993, he agreed to take over the Executive Editorship of the international journal of Atmospheric Environment published by Elsevier from the U.K. This role allows him a unique window into the world of international science. He has traveled extensively but his wanderlust is alive and well.
While Dr. Hanwant B.Singh, as the atmospheric research director at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley became finalist for the Partnership for Public Service’s 2017 Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals. The awards, better known as “The Sammies” were named for the partnership’s late founder, American businessman and philanthropist Samuel J. Heyman. The award recognizes federal employees who break down barriers, overcome huge challenges and get results. Hanwant is a finalist for the Career Achievement Award, selected for his exceptional leadership and three decades of pioneering research identifying harmful pollutants in the atmosphere, and their impact on the climate and human health. As Dr. Hanwant’s team has been working on the ORACLES mission – an airborne science mission deploying on mid August 2017 in Africa to study how particles from fires on the surface affect clouds, their distribution and their properties.
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| Dr Hanwant B. Singh receiving the NASA Medal of Honour |
On August 2nd, 2018, Dr. Hanwant Singh received the NASA Agency Medal for Distinguished Service. For seminal contributions in understanding the Earth’s natural atmosphere and the global change resulting from human activities. During Dr. Singh’s 32-year career at NASA, he contributed major theoretical and experimental ideas to understanding the Earth’s natural atmosphere and the global change resulting from the impact of human activities. He led the advocacy, science definition, and implementation of NASA campaigns, including the Airborne Tropical Tropopause Experiment (2010-2015).
He was the first to demonstrate that select man-made chemicals could be used to determine the cleansing capacity of the global atmosphere and estimate how long a chemical will stay in the atmosphere before it is destroyed. He is also a member of a United Nations council to promote, organize, and coordinate international research efforts towards a cleaner and healthier world in less-developed countries. As an exemplary pioneer, his leadership and contributions to atmospheric science at NASA are unparalleled. This is NASA’s highest form of recognition that is awarded to a Government employee who, by distinguished service, ability, or vision has personally contributed to NASA’s advancement of United States’ interests. The individual’s achievement or contribution must demonstrate a level of excellence that has made a profound or indelible impact on NASA mission success, and therefore, the contribution is so extraordinary that other forms of recognition by NASA would be inadequate.
Dr. Hanwant B. Singh believes that both industry and governmental institutions have been reluctant to act on environmental preservation as the focus has always been on short-term costs rather than long-term benefits, a situation that continues to persist. “This conflict also extends to global scales, making it very difficult on sensible progress, especially on problems that may surface on decadal scales. In the early years, there was an argument that chlorofluorocarbons, implicated in the destruction of the stratospheric ozone layer, could not be all that bad because very similar chemical already existed in nature and carbon tetrachloride (CT) was offered as the primary example.
We were able to look at historical data and do some experiments to prove that CT was completely man-made but appeared natural because it had accumulated in the atmosphere over a long time and was long-lived and uniformly distributed,” shares Singh, adding, “We were also able to demonstrate that some selected manmade chemicals in the atmosphere could be used for the benefit to understand the ability of the atmosphere to clean itself. This method of assessing the cleansing capacity of the atmosphere is widely used even today and is central to all global models. Accidentally we also found a large group of oxygenated chemicals in the atmosphere and decades of work went into fully understanding their sources (biogenic and man-made) and fates.”
Talking about the new instrumentation DR. Hanwant B. Singh has developed and the various field studies he has been through to demonstrate its crucial role in ozone chemistry, he says, “Nitrogen oxides are a principal component in ozone formation but are quite short-lived. We first theorised that reactive nitrogenous organic chemicals must exist in the upper atmosphere and if so can be carriers of nitrogen oxides around the globe. We developed techniques to measure these chemicals (e.g. PANs) and used models to demonstrate their role in ozone formation. We developed a number of other instruments to measure a large variety of species in the atmosphere like phosgene, nitriles and oxygenates for the first time.” Since most of these species were present in extremely low concentrations and required highly sensitive methods of detection and identification, a number of techniques were used to separate, identify and measure these species.
Most campaigns were done on aircraft sampling and analysis techniques in changing atmospheric, T and P conditions were developed. “We then organised several large airborne campaigns to investigate these and other important issues regarding gases, particles, and their long-distance transport.”
Talking about the current battle with environmental crisis, especially in India, with metro-cities being high on smog and air pollutants, Singh shares, “When I first started in this field in the early 1970’s, we lacked proper instrumentation and in the US there were major air pollution problems in large cities like Los Angeles. In the last 50 years, there have been a number of technical solutions (e.g. catalytic converters) with many laws and regulations that were strictly enforced with California leading the rest of the nation. Huge progress has been made over these decades and the environment is much cleaner in nearly all cities.
"Use of lead has been eliminated through environmental protection laws.”
These changes occurred slowly but successfully and required a societal consensus.
“In many megacities around the world like Delhi and Beijing, large populations, rapid growth, and lack of enforceable regulations have been a big problem. Also, the unregulated use of fuels involving transportation, home cooking, agricultural burning is among prominent sources of pollutants in developing countries. The successful model of progress in the U.S. can be easily replicated in developing countries”,
adds Singh who strongly feels that though the science of pollution is now well understood but the political courage to act is often lacking.
Dr Hanwant B. Singh Doad shares,
“There is much to discover in this field and because many aspects are global, you build close connections with people from many countries and extensive travel is an added benefit.”
When asked what earth science holds for future generations, he answers,
“Young students should acquire a strong background in physical/biological sciences and be eager to embrace new technologies. Earth Science, like many other sciences, is ultimately a team effort and establishing teams and collaborations is a critical part of this enterprise.”
In honoring Dr. Hanwant B Singh Doad outstanding contributions made by him as a Scientist and Technologist who has earned recognition in the international scientific and engineering community, and through his achievements brought glory to the name of this nation.
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