John Seinfeld─The Atmospheric Engineer Who Cleared the Air

John Seinfeld is one of the most important and influential atmospheric scientists and engineers of the last 60 years. As a young chemical engineering professor, who had just defended his thesis on the control of distributed parameter systems, living in Los Angeles’ dense photochemical smog, Seinfeld conceived a mathematical model describing atmospheric transport, dispersion, and chemical reaction processes that, with a source emissions model and inventory and meteorological data, could predict the gaseous pollutant and aerosol concentrations at any point in the urban airshed. When combined with data on key indicators of pollution, that model would lay the foundation for engineering air quality throughout the basin. This perspective explores the path taken by Seinfeld and more than 100 Ph.D. students and many postdocs whom he mentored, many collaborators over his 58-year tenure at Caltech as they developed theoretical, computational, and experimental methods that ultimately fulfilled this dream: leading to improved air quality in Los Angeles and around the world. His research, that of his academic progeny, and those who have learned through his many seminal textbooks continue to lead atmospheric science, air quality, and climate change research around the world and address the existential challenges of the world today.