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Accolade: Beate Liepert receives a WINGS WorldQuest 2016 Women of Discovery Award
March 2016
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Dr. Beate G. Liepert discovered during her graduate work at Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich that declines in solar energy reaching Earth’s surface were equivalent to the predicted global warming signal. Despite great skepticism of her theorem, she received her Ph.D. with this thesis, and her discovery was eventually recognized as a worldwide phenomenon coined "global dimming" and cited in the first report of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. From early on Liepert suspected that global dimming could be used as a "Rosetta stone" in explaining previously unsolved climate puzzles. Liepert went on to explore global dimming further using hot air balloons. Her story was featured in the BBC documentary "Dimming the Sun," and her hot air balloon flights became a New Yorker "The Talk of the Town" story. Now that global dimming is widely accepted, Liepert focuses her research and development on solar energy optimization. http://www.wingsworldquest.org/2016-womenofdiscovery-gala/ Congratulations Beate! About WINGS WorldQuest: In 2003, Milbry Polk and Leila Hadley Luce founded WINGS WorldQuest to shine light on the under-recognized discoveries and accomplishments of women explorers, promote women working in the field sciences, and inspire the next generation of pathfinders. The WINGS Women of Discovery Awards and Fellows Program were established to celebrate the ground-breaking work of women explorers and scientists who are actively out in the field today and provide critical, unrestricted funding to support and ensure continued study. To date, WINGS has honored over 70 extraordinary explorers through its Women of Discovery Awards and Fellows Program and provided more than $500,000 in research and field support. |
