As director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, Tony Haymet leads one of most respected global ocean and earth science research and education centers in the world. Now in its second century of discovery, Scripps has broadened its scientific scope to include major studies of the earth as a system.

Before joining Scripps in 2006, Haymet was chief of marine and atmospheric research, and later director of science and policy, at Australia’s national science research agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).

Among his many honors, Haymet received the Distinguished Young Chemist Award from the Federation of Asian Chemical Societies and the Antarctic Service Medal from the U.S. Department of the Navy.

Haymet serves as UC San Diego’s vice chancellor for marine sciences and dean of the Graduate School of Marine Sciences. He is also a professor of oceanography at Scripps and a professor of chemistry at UC San Diego.

Ralph Keeling’s research focuses on atmospheric chemistry, the carbon cycle and climate change. He is considered a leading investigator of the global oxygen cycle for his precise measurements and analysis techniques.

Keeling received a bachelor’s degree in physics from Yale University in 1979. In 1988, he earned a Ph.D. in applied physics from Harvard University.

In the late 1980s, Keeling pioneered a method for measuring atmospheric oxygen levels from air samples collected at stations around the world. His measurements have shown that the atmosphere is losing O2 at a small but measurable rate due primarily to the burning of fossil fuels and improved our understanding of CO2 buildup in the atmosphere.

Among Ray Weiss’s major research contributions is the discovery and characterization of the global distribution and increase in atmospheric nitrous oxide, a stratospheric ozone depleter and a greenhouse gas regulated by both the Montreal and Kyoto protocols.

Weiss received a bachelor's degree in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology in 1964. He went on to earn a master’s degree in earth sciences from Scripps in 1966, and his Ph.D., also in earth sciences from Scripps, in 1970.

Weiss has been active in the international scientific assessment processes of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion reports of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). He is also the lead principal investigator responsible for the measurement component of the Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment (AGAGE), an international effort to trace and model the emissions, global distributions and atmospheric lifetimes of a wide range of anthropogenic and natural greenhouse gases and ozone-depleting substances.