Just six days later, on Oct. 12, Nelson received formal notice that the scientists involved in the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had jointly been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change.” The award, which has precipitated worldwide acclaim for IPCC and co-recipient former Vice President Al Gore, is the first Nobel Prize bestowed on a body with a committee structure. Nelson contributed a lengthy section on climate-change impacts on permafrost to the 2007 IPCC report.
Nelson and other IPCC contributors received an e-mailed letter from IPCC Chair Rajendra Pachauri that reads, in part: “I have been stunned in a pleasant way with the news of the award of the Nobel Peace Prize for the IPCC. This makes each of you a Nobel Laureate and it is my privilege to acknowledge this honour on your behalf....The fact that the IPCC has earned the recognition that this award embodies, is really a tribute to your knowledge, hard work and application.”
The Northern Michigan University Distinguished Alumni Award is the highest honor bestowed by NMU and is reserved for those “who are outstanding in their professions and have made significant contributions to society and profession, have demonstrated leadership that clearly sets them apart from their peers, and are distinguished by their achievements.” The award was conferred by NMU President Les Wong, who cited Nelson's “lifelong commitment to education and instruction,” “his high-profile work in the world's foremost scientific publications,' and his research “in the vanguard of permafrost science [and] the effects of global climate warming.”
Also mentioned in the citation were Nelson's recent presidency of the U.S. Permafrost Association, his status as National Fellow of the Explorers Club of New York City, his positions of leadership in the American Geographical Society, the International Geographical Union and the Association of American Geographers, and his ongoing support for NMU's programs and initiatives.
At the ceremony, Nelson was presented with a commemorative plaque that reads, in part: “What started as a love of geography in a class at NMU in the early '70s has grown into a globe-spanning scientific career during which Frederick Nelson has come to be recognized as one of the premier permafrost researchers in the world and a vital contributor to the advancement of exploration and science.”
Nelson contributed sections on permafrost to all four of the IPCC Assessment Reports, published in 1990, 1995, 2001, and 2007. He served as a lead author of the Arctic and Antarctic chapter on the 2001 Third Assessment Report and was a contributing author on the Polar Regions chapter of the Working Group II (Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability) volume in the just-released 2007 effort. Nelson also acted as expert reviewer for the IPCC's Working Group I (The Physical Science Basis) volume.
For more information about IPCC, the 2007 report and IPCC's Nobel Peace Prize, visit [www.ipcc.ch].