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| Gilbert Plass | |
|---|---|
| Name | Gilbert Norman Plass |
| Birth date | February 27, 1908 |
| Birth place | Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
| Death date | February 6, 1991 |
| Death place | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Fields | Atmospheric physics, spectroscopy, radiative transfer |
| Institutions | Princeton University, General Electric, Carnegie Institution for Science, United States Navy, University of Rochester |
| Alma mater | McGill University, Princeton University |
| Doctoral advisor | Joseph Valasek |
| Known for | Carbon dioxide greenhouse effect, infrared spectroscopy |
Gilbert Plass was a Canadian-born physicist and pioneer in atmospheric science whose mid-20th-century work on infrared spectroscopy and radiative transfer clarified the role of carbon dioxide in planetary warming. His theoretical calculations linking increasing fossil fuel combustion to enhanced greenhouse gas forcing influenced contemporaries across meteorology, geophysics, and climatology. Plass's research intersected with institutions such as Princeton University, General Electric, and the Carnegie Institution for Science and informed policy discussions in the decades following World War II.
Plass was born in Montreal and completed undergraduate studies at McGill University before earning a Ph.D. in physics from Princeton University, where he studied under Joseph Valasek and interacted with contemporaries from Harvard University, Yale University, Columbia University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. During his formative years he engaged with researchers linked to Bell Laboratories and the National Research Council of Canada, and he was influenced by the spectroscopic traditions of Niels Bohr, Arnold Sommerfeld, Max Planck, and Lord Rayleigh. His early academic network overlapped with figures associated with Royal Society fellows and researchers from University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, and University of Chicago.
Plass began his career at United States Navy facilities and later joined industrial research at General Electric and academic posts at Princeton University and the University of Rochester. He worked on infrared spectroscopy techniques related to molecular absorption lines developed by groups at Bell Labs, Caltech, and Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. His investigations drew on quantum-mechanical line-shape theory advanced by Ludwig Boltzmann-inspired researchers, and he used computational methods that paralleled early efforts at IBM and programming paradigms from John von Neumann collaborators. Plass consulted with scientists from the Carnegie Institution for Science, the National Academy of Sciences, and agencies such as the U.S. Weather Bureau and engaged with international organizations including International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics and the World Meteorological Organization.
Plass is best known for applying detailed infrared radiative-transfer calculations to the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, building on observational data from expeditions and monitoring networks pioneered by Guy Stewart Callendar and later expanded by Charles David Keeling. Using spectroscopic databases influenced by work at Cambridge Observatory and theoretical advances from Gordon Kepler-style studies, Plass computed how incremental increases in carbon dioxide alter outgoing longwave radiation, a mechanism central to the greenhouse effect discussed in earlier writings by Svante Arrhenius and contemporaries at Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. His 1950s papers informed debates at forums involving scientists from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Argonne National Laboratory. Plass's modeling influenced subsequent climate model development by groups at Hadley Centre, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, NOAA research centers, and academic teams at University of California, Berkeley, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Princeton University. His calculations were cited in policy-relevant contexts alongside work by Roger Revelle, Wallace S. Broecker, and Edward Lorenz and informed early assessments that later contributed to institutional reports by bodies such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
After his pivotal 1950s research Plass continued work in spectroscopy, consulting for laboratories associated with DuPont, Shell Oil Company, and national laboratories in the United States and Canada. He lectured at institutions including Carnegie Mellon University and served as an advisor to committees convened by the National Science Foundation and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Honors and recognition for his contributions connected him to award-granting bodies such as the American Geophysical Union, the American Meteorological Society, and the Royal Society of Canada. Plass's interactions with scientists from University of Toronto, McGill University, Cornell University, Princeton, and Yale extended his influence across North American research networks.
Plass maintained professional contacts with leading figures in 20th-century physical science, linking communities at Royal Institution, Institute of Physics, American Institute of Physics, European Geosciences Union, and policy forums in Washington, D.C.. His legacy persists in the work of researchers affiliated with Scripps Institution of Oceanography, NOAA, NASA, Hadley Centre, and major universities worldwide. Contemporary histories of climate science cite Plass alongside pioneers such as Svante Arrhenius, Guy Stewart Callendar, Charles David Keeling, Roger Revelle, and Wallace S. Broecker for establishing the quantitative basis for understanding anthropogenic impacts on planetary temperature. Plass died in Toronto in 1991; his papers and correspondence are associated with archives connected to Princeton University, McGill University, and various scientific societies.
Category:Canadian physicists Category:Atmospheric scientists Category:1908 births Category:1991 deaths