Susan Solomon, the Lee and Geraldine Martin Professor of Environmental Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has received the 2023 VinFuture Award for Female Innovators. The award, which includes a $500,000 prize, is presented annually by the Vietnam-based VinFuture Foundation in recognition of outstanding women researchers and innovators that serve as role models for aspiring scientists.
Dr. Solomon was honored for her contributions to the field of environmental studies. One of her most notable accomplishments was serving as head project scientist for the National Ozone Expedition in 1986 and 1987. The research team, of which Dr. Solomon was the only woman, embarked on the expedition to measure the degradation of the ozone layer. The team’s discoveries regarding the atmosphere’s chemical properties influenced the creation of “the Montreal Protocol,” an international agreement that banned damaging chemicals in an effort to protect the ozone.
Prior to joining the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2012, Dr. Solomon served as a scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Boulder, Colorado and adjunct professor at the University of Colorado from 1982-2011. In her current faculty role, she holds joint appointments in the institute’s department of chemistry and earth and the department of atmospheric and planetary sciences.
“Women can do anything, even help save the ozone layer and solve other environmental problems,” she says. “Today’s problem of climate change is for all of us to be involved in solving.”
Dr. Solomon is a graduate of the Illinois Institute of Technology where she majored in chemistry. She received her master’s degree and Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California Berkeley.