Paul J. Crutzen, Ph.D., has been a member of the Expert Advisory Group on Global Change, Climate and Biodiversity at the European Commission. His principal research interest deals with atmospheric chemistry and its role in biogeochemical cycles and climate.

Along with F. Sherwood Rowland and Mario Molina, Crutzen received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1995 for his work in the fields of stratospheric and tropospheric chemistry and their role in the biochemical cycles and climate. He identified biomass burning, especially in the tropics, as an important source of air pollution with important impacts on Earth climate and the ozone layer.

Crutzen, since 1992 with Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, Ca., has contributed to studies on the environmental consequences of a nuclear war. Born in Amsterdam in 1933, he was trained as a civil engineer and worked with the Bridge Construction Bureau of the Stockholm University (MISU). He has been extensively involved in various meteorological projects like helping to build and run some of the first numerical weather prediction models. He has served as Director of Research at the National Center of Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, from 1977-1980, and from 1977 to 2000 he worked at the Max-Planck-Institute for Chemistry in Mainz, Germany, including serving as Executive Director from 1983 to 1985.

Crutzen has been extensively quoted worldwide on geosciences, and he has received numerous awards such as the Global Ozone Award for "Outstanding Contribution for the Protection of the Ozone Layer" from the United Nations Environment Programme. A founding member of Academia Europaea, Crutzen has received honorary doctoral degrees from 14 major universities. He is an author of more than 170 refereed and 50 other research publications, and co-author of four and editor of four books.