Valerie Masson-Delmotte facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Valerie Masson-Delmotte
Valérie Masson-Delmotte in 2015
Nationality	French
Alma mater	Ecole Centrale Paris
Awards	Martha T Muse prize
Scientific career
Fields	climate science
Institutions	The Climate and Environment Sciences Laboratory, Commission for Atomic Energy

Valerie Masson-Delmotte is a French climate scientist. She works as a Research Director at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission. There, she is part of the Climate and Environment Sciences Laboratory (LSCE). She uses information from Earth's past climates to check how well climate change models work. She has also helped write several reports for the IPCC.

Early Life and Studies

Valerie Masson-Delmotte was born on October 29, 1971. Her parents were both English teachers. She grew up in Nancy, a city in northeast France.

In 1993, she finished her engineering studies with high honors at the Ecole Centrale Paris. She then earned her PhD from the same school in 1996. Her PhD focused on how fluids move and transfer energy.

Career and Research

After getting her PhD, Masson-Delmotte started working as a researcher. She joined the Commissariat for Atomic Energy (CEA) at the Laboratory of Climate and the Environmental Sciences.

She became a research group leader in 1998. By 2010, she was leading a group that studied past climates. Since 2008, she has been a Senior Scientist and Research Director at CEA. Her work includes watching water vapor in the air. She also combines data from past climates, like information from ice cores and tree rings, with computer models. This helps her understand current climate changes.

Masson-Delmotte has worked on many projects in France and around the world. These include projects with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Since 2014, she has been a member of the French Research Strategic Council. She has also written many books, including some for the public and for children.

Working with the IPCC

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is a group of scientists from around the world. They study climate change. In October 2015, Valerie Masson-Delmotte was chosen to be a co-chair for Working Group 1 (WGI) of the IPCC. This group looks at the basic science behind climate change.

She was also a main author for the chapter on past climates in the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (AR5). She then led Working Group One's work for the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (AR6). She held this important role until new leaders were chosen for the next report cycle.

Awards and Honors

Valerie Masson-Delmotte has received many awards for her important work.

• In 2015, she won the Martha T. Muse prize for her contributions to science in Antarctica.
• She also won the French-Austrian Prize Amédée in 2014.
• In 2013, she received the Irène Joliot-Curie prize for being a top woman scientist of the year.
• She won the UVSQ prize for scientific excellence in 2011.
• In 2008, she received the Descartes Prize from the European Commission for her teamwork on the EPICA project.
• She was part of the group that won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. This prize was given to Al Gore and the IPCC.
• In 2002, she shared the Grand Prix Etienne Roth du CEA from the French Academy of Sciences.
• In 2019, she was given the 2020 Milutin Milankovic Medal by the European Geosciences Union.
• In 2020, Utrecht University gave her an honorary doctorate for her work in climate science.
• Also in 2020, she and her partner, Mª del Carmen Domínguez, received the Prix Diálogo for their research on the environment and climate change.
• For 2023, she received the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award.

Selected Works

• Masson-Delmotte, Valérie, and others. "Information from Paleoclimate Archives." In: Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. (2013). This report explains what we learn from past climates.
• Hansen, James, and others. "Target atmospheric CO2: Where should humanity aim?." arXiv preprint arXiv:0804.1126 (2008). This paper discusses how much carbon dioxide should be in the air.
• Loulergue, Laetitia, and others. "Orbital and millennial-scale features of atmospheric CH4 over the past 800,000 years." Nature 453, no. 7193 (2008): 383–386. This work looks at methane levels in the air over a very long time.
• Jouzel, Jean, and others. "Orbital and millennial Antarctic climate variability over the past 800,000 years." Science 317(5839) (2007): 793–796. This article explores how Antarctica's climate has changed over hundreds of thousands of years.
• Masson-Delmotte, Valérie, and others. "Past and future polar amplification of climate change: climate model intercomparisons and ice-core constraints." Climate Dynamics 26, no. 5 (2006): 513–529. This paper compares climate models and ice core data to understand warming at the poles.
• Siegenthaler, Urs, and others. "Stable carbon cycle–climate relationship during the late Pleistocene." Science 310, no. 5752 (2005): 1313–1317. This research looks at the link between the carbon cycle and climate in Earth's recent past.
• Masson Valérie, Françoise Vimeux, Jean Jouzel, and others. "Holocene climate variability in Antarctica based on 11 ice-core isotopic records." Quaternary Research 54, no. 3 (2000): 348–358. This study uses ice cores to understand climate changes in Antarctica over the last 10,000 years.

See also

In Spanish: Valérie Masson-Delmotte para niños