A few minutes ago, I got a CNN.com news alert: "The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to former Vice President Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change." I went immediately to Nobel.se to see the exact wording of the official citation. Here's part of the press release:
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 is to be shared, in two equal parts, between the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Albert Arnold (Al) Gore Jr. 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 South Asian connection here is that the chairman of the IPCC is an Indian scientist named Rajendra K. Pachauri. In yesterday's New York Times, reporter Mark Landler mentioned the possible winners for this year's prize:
Among those hotly rumored as candidates are three climate-change evangelists: former Vice President Al Gore; Sheila Watt-Cloutier, a Canadian Inuit who has warned of the threat to Arctic wildlife; and Rajendra K. Pachauri, an Indian scientist who leads the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which assesses the risks of greenhouse gases for the United Nations.
[Considering he nailed two of the eventual winners, I want Landler to be my tipster on other things, too.]
Dr. Pachauri is Director-General of The Energy Research Instititue, based in New Delhi. The IPCC chairmanship is an elected post; he was nominated by the Indian government.
More on Dr. Pachauri, who is 67, is in his TERI bio, reproduced below; Wikipedia; a US government climate science site; and his WhatAboutU profile. See a five-part interview with him, done by Rediff in June 2007.
Note: Unlike the last two Peace Prizes, which also went to major organizations, in this case the head of the group is not named in the citation itself.
2006 citation: The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2006, divided into two equal parts, to Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank for their efforts to create economic and social development from below.
2005 citation: The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2005 is to be shared, in two equal parts, between the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and its Director General, Mohamed ElBaradei, for their efforts to prevent nuclear energy from being used for military purposes and to ensure that nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is used in the safest possible way.
A couple of possible reasons for Pachauri's name being left out. One is that the Yunus and ElBaradei have been running their organizations for much longer periods of time (Pachauri only became head of IPCC in 2002) and were the most public faces of Grameen and IAEA respectively - in fact, the ONLY public faces. Their stature and sheer force of personality would certainly have been a factor in naming them individually. The other is that there wasn't another, unconnected entity splitting those awards. Once Al Gore was going to get half the award, it wouldn't make sense to name Pachauri in the IPCC citation - perhaps.
Nobels with a South Asia connection (this list was originally compiled by SAJA, with additional notations and links by SepiaMutiny):
- Muhammad Yunus & Grameen Bank (Peace, 2006)
- V.S. Naipaul (Literature, 2001)
- Amartya Sen (Economics, 1998)
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama (Peace, 1989)
- Subramanyan Chandrasekhar (Physics, 1983) [black holes]
- Mother Teresa (Peace, 1979)
- Abdus Salam (Physics, 1979) [electroweak theory; first from Pakistan]
- Har Gobind Khorana (Medicine, 1968) [synthetic RNA]
- Sir C.V. Raman (Physics, 1930) [spectroscopy, Raman effect]
- Rabindranath Tagore (Literature, 1913) [first Asian to win]
- Rudyard Kipling (Literature, 1907)
- Ronald Ross (Medicine, 1902) [malaria]
It's worth noting that Mahatma Gandhi did not win the Nobel Peace Prize - here's an explanation of the circumstances of the biggest omission in Nobel history.
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See the official Pachauri bio from TERI:
Dr Rajendra K Pachauri assumed his current responsibilities as the head of TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute) in 1981, first as Director and, since April 2001, as Director-General. TERI does original research and provides professional support in the areas of energy, environment, forestry, biotechnology, and the conservation of natural resources to governments, institutions, and corporate organizations worldwide. In April 2002, Dr Pachauri was elected the Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, established by the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme in 1988. He has been active in several international forums dealing with the subject of climate change and its policy dimensions.
To acknowledge his immense contributions to the field of environment, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the President of India in January 2001.
Commencing his career with the Diesel Locomotive Works, Varanasi, where he held several managerial positions, Dr Pachauri joined the North Carolina State University in Raleigh, USA, where he obtained an MS in industrial engineering in 1972, a Ph.D. in industrial engineering and a Ph.D. in economics. He also served as Assistant Professor (August 1974-May 1975) and Visiting Faculty Member (Summer 1976 and 1977) in the Department of Economics and Business.
On his return to India, he joined the Administrative Staff College of India, Hyderabad, as Member Senior Faculty (June 1975-June 1979) and went on to become Director, Consulting and Applied Research Division (July 1979-March 1981). He joined TERI as Director in April 1981.
He has also been a Visiting Professor, Resource Economics, at the College of Mineral and Energy Resources, West Virginia University (August 1981-August 1982); Senior Visiting Fellow, Resource Systems Institute, East-West Center, USA (May-June 1982); and Visiting Research Fellow, The World Bank, Washington, DC (June-September 1990). Recognizing his vast knowledge and experience in the energy-environment field, the United Nations Development Programme appointed him as part-time adviser to its Administrator in the fields of energy and sustainable management of natural resources (1994-99).
Dr Pachauri's wide-ranging expertise has resulted in his membership of various international and national committees and boards. At the international level, these include his positions as Member, Board of the International Solar Energy Society (1991-97); Member, World Resources Institute Council (1992); Chairman, Work Group A, World Energy Council Committee on Developing Countries (1993-95); President and Chairman, International Association for Energy Economics, Washington, D C (1988, 1989-90, respectively); and President, Asian Energy Institute (1992 onwards).
The committees of the Government of India to which he has contributed include the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India (July 2001 onwards); Panel of Eminent Persons on Power, Ministry of Power; Delhi Vision - Core Planning Group; Advisory Board on Energy, reporting directly to the Prime Minister (1983-88); National Environmental Council, under the Chairmanship of the Prime Minister (November 1993 and April 1999); and Oil Industry Restructuring Group, 'R' Group, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (1994).
Dr Pachauri has also been associated with academic and research institutes. He was on the Board of Directors of the Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (January 1999 to September 2003); the Board of Governors, Shriram Scientific and Industrial Research Foundation (September 1987); the Executive Committee of the India International Centre, New Delhi (1985 onwards); the Governing Council of the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi (October 1987 onwards); and the Court of Governors, Administrative Staff College of India (1979-81).
In April 2003, Dr Pachauri was appointed a Director of GAIL (India) Ltd. In August 2002, he was appointed a Director on the Board of National Thermal Power Corporation Ltd, India. In September 1999, he was appointed Chairman of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway Heritage Foundation. Earlier, in April 1999, he was appointed Member of the Board of Directors of the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, Environment Agency, Government of Japan, for three years.
Dr Pachauri taught at the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University, USA, as a McCluskey Fellow during 6 September-8 December 2000. He has also authored 23 books and several papers and articles.
