Susan Solomon is an atmospheric chemist, elected by Time magazine in 2008 as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. The first to propose the interactions of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and polar stratospheric clouds as the cause of the ozone hole, she led the US National Ozone Expedition to Antarctica in the 1980s that confirmed her theory.

Susan served on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and her research on the stratosphere formed part of the basis of the UN Montreal Protocol, an international agreement to regulate atmospheric pollution and protect the ozone layer. As a result, Susan’s recent analyses demonstrate that the ozone hole is beginning the first stage of recovery.

In 1994, the Solomon glacier was named in Susan’s honour. She was awarded the US National Medal of Science for “key insights in explaining the cause of the Antarctic ozone hole”.