Eos, Vol. 78, No. 26, July 1, 1997
1 9 9 3 - 1 9 9 4 patents. For research papers in physics, NSF support is cited most often and the Navy is s e c o n d , followed by the Depart
ment of Energy, the Air F o r c e , DARPA, the Army, NASA, a n d DOD in general.
This "strong r e l i a n c e of U.S. industry pat
ents on public s e c t o r s c i e n c e , " the paper re
marks, "implies that U.S. industry is far from self-sufficient in s c i e n c e . " It c o n c l u d e s "that public s c i e n c e plays an essential role in sup
porting U.S. industry, a c r o s s all the s c i e n c e - linked a r e a s of industry, amongst c o m p a n i e s large and small, and is a fundamental pillar of the a d v a n c e of U.S. technology." T h e
study will b e available from CHI R e s e a r c h , Inc., 10 Whitehorse Pike, Haddon Heights, NJ 0 8 0 3 5 ; tel. 609-546-0600; fax 609-546-9633;
e-mail 7 3 3 0 2 . 1 0 3 6 @ c o m p u s e r v e . c o m .
—Excerpted from the A m e r i c a n Institute of Physics Bulletin of S c i e n c e Policy News
Baron Marcel Nicolet (1912-1996)
PAGES 267, 270
Marcel Nicolet, honorary founder and di
rector of the Institut d'Aeronomie Spatiale de Belgique, passed away on O c t o b e r 8 , 1 9 9 6 . Born in the village of Basse B o d e u x , Belgium, on February 2 6 , 1 9 1 2 , Nicolet completed his studies in Greek and Latin Classics and went to the University of Liege to study philology. After a few months, he switched courses and regis
tered as a student at the Faculty of S c i e n c e s , where he obtained a degree in physics in 1934 after writing a dissertation on the spectrum of 0 and B stars. He published this work with Paul Swings in the Astrophysical Journal.
Nicolet was soon noticed by Jules Jaumotte, director of the Institut Royal Meteorologique (IRM) in U c c l e , a n d h e b e c a m e a staff mem
b e r of the institution in 1935. He liked to re
call that new arrivals started off in the w e a t h e r office, as h e did. Nicolet split his days b e t w e e n U c c l e and the m e t e o r o l o g i c a l office in Haeren, w h e r e he worked for the na
tional airport w e a t h e r forecast, while prepar
ing a doctoral thesis u n d e r the direction of P.
Swings in Liege. His thesis, "Study of the S p e c trum and Composition of Stellar Atmos
pheres," was presented in 1937. In March of the s a m e year, h e spent his first mission a b r o a d , at the Swiss Lichklimatisches Obser- vatorium in Arosa, w h e r e Gotz was observing the a t m o s p h e r i c o z o n e in c o l l a b o r a t i o n with Gordon D o b s o n , w h o was at Oxford. Observa
tions of night airglow w e r e also undertaken there, in which Nicolet participated. Now married, he returned to Arosa from O c t o b e r 1938 to March 1939, a c c o m p a n i e d by Alice.
By then, Nicolet had authored 28 scien
tific publications, eight of them with other writers. His publications focused on the a t o m i c and m o l e c u l a r c o m p o s i t i o n of stars, the Sun in particular, and also c o m e t s and the Earth's upper a t m o s p h e r e . Over the c o u r s e of his long c a r e e r , h e authored m o r e than 2 0 0 publications, particularly in aero- n o m y but also in m e t e o r o l o g y and astrophys
ics, and they all b o r e the mark of his extremely rigorous scientific a p p r o a c h . He also published two b o o k s , Aeronomy (Mir publishers, M o s c o w , 1964) and Study on the Chemical Reactions of Ozone in the Strato
sphere (Institut Royal Meteorologique, 1 9 7 7 ) . Nicolet had just b e e n c h a r g e d with creat
ing an infrastructure for radiation observa-
Marcel Nicolet (left) with Senator Lyndon B. Johnson at a space symposium on upper at
mosphere and medicine in November 1958.
tions in U c c l e w h e n war b r o k e out. T h e mem
bers of the IRM scientific staff w e r e mobilized at the Belgian Army Headquarters, and they lived through the last hours of the 18-day c a m paign of the German invasion in May 1940 at the Belgian coast, which marked the begin
ning of World War II. Nicolet used to enjoy re
counting the episodes e x p e r i e n c e d with his friend, J a c q u e s Van Mieghem, w h o later be
c a m e Director of the IRM.
W h e n he returned to U c c l e , Nicolet and his c o l l e a g u e s w e r e p l a c e d u n d e r the author
ity of the German o c c u p y i n g forces, a repre
sentative of w h i c h was present to ensure that orders w e r e o b e y e d . They w e r e forbidden to forecast the weather. Nicolet c o n t i n u e d his study of the Sun and the upper a t m o s p h e r e and w a s a b l e to present an agregation thesis,
"Contribution to the Study of the Iono
sphere," to the University of Brussels in 1945.
Nicolet's thesis e x p l a i n e d how the iono
spheric D region forms on purely theoretical and speculative b a s e s . He postulated that so
lar radiation at the wavelength of the Lyman alpha line of hydrogen c o u l d penetrate the m e s o s p h e r e , leading to ionization of nitric ox
ide. For this, h e imagined an optical window in the oxygen absorption spectrum and NO formation p r o c e s s e s .
This work, subsequently translated into English by NASA, brought him international a c c l a i m and invitations to n u m e r o u s confer
e n c e s , as well as an invitation from Frank R o a c h , a specialist in airglow, to spend J a n u a r y - J u n e 1950 at the California Institute of T e c h n o l o g y . At this time, the Aden and Mar-
Nicolet was ennobled by the king of Belgium in 1986. His coat of arms bears a globe with cir
cles of longitude and latitude. A satellite in or
bit surrounds the globe.
jorie Meinel h u s b a n d and wife t e a m had just o b s e r v e d the nocturnal spectrum of the OH m o l e c u l e identified by Herzberg, and o z o n e observations by the Naval R e s e a r c h Labora
tory via rocket-borne s p e c t r o m e t e r s had just demonstrated a deficit of m e s o s p h e r i c o z o n e that disagreed with the theory formulated by C h a p m a n in 1930. At Caltech, Nicolet met an
other E u r o p e a n invited by R o a c h : Sir David Bates, m a t h e m a t i c i a n and pupil of Sir Harry Massey, a n d therefore a specialist in the the
ory of a t o m i c a n d m o l e c u l a r collisions. B a t e s and Nicolet b e c a m e c l o s e friends and p o o l e d their k n o w l e d g e to explain the reduc
tion in the m e s o s p h e r i c o z o n e by catalytic re
a c t i o n s involving HO*. Their results were s u b s e q u e n t l y transposed to the stratosphere for N O x by Paul Crutzen in 1970 a n d by Rich
ard Stolarski and Ralph Cicerone for CIO* in 1973, and finally m a d e widely available by Sherwood Rowland and Mario Molina in 1975.
In May 1950, s o m e 20 scientists, mainly American but also including Sidney Chapman, w h o had left Oxford for the University of Alaska, and Nicolet discussed Lloyd Berkner's suggestion of repeating the International Po
lar Years every 25 years rather than every 5 0 years. This meeting took p l a c e at the Naval O r d n a n c e Test Station at Inyokern, China
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Eos, Vol. 78, No. 26, July 1, 1997
Lake, in California. T h e question was de
bated again at the C o n f e r e n c e on the Physics of the Ionosphere, w h i c h was hosted by the I o n o s p h e r i c Laboratory of Pennsylvania State University at the invitation of its direc
tor, A. Waynick. W a y n i c k invited Nicolet to b e r e s e a r c h professor at the I o n o s p h e r i c Re
s e a r c h Laboratory, w h e r e h e s u b s e q u e n t l y su
pervised several doctoral students. T h e official proposal for a third Polar Y e a r was put to the International Council of Scientific Unions via the J o i n t Commission ( g e o p h y s i c s and a s t r o n o m y ) on the I o n o s p h e r e meeting in Brussels in 1950.
T h e d e c i s i o n was m a d e to hold the third International Polar Year, which was to b e ti
tled "International Geophysical Year." T o or
ganize the event, the International Council of Scientific Unions set up the S p e c i a l Commit
tee for the International Geophysical Y e a r (CSAGI), whose bureau was chaired by Sidney C h a p m a n with the A m e r i c a n Llyod Berkner, the Russian Vladimir Beloussov, and the F r e n c h m a n J e a n C o u l o m b as m e m b e r s and Nicolet as secretary general. At the time, C h a p m a n was president of the Association of Terrestrial Magnetism and Electricity, w h o s e title h e had c h a n g e d to the International As
s o c i a t i o n of G e o m a g n e t i s m and A e r o n o m y . T h e word a e r o n o m y was a n e w o n e a n d first a p p e a r e d during the presidency of his s u c c e s sor, C o u l o m b .
Meetings of the 14 disciplines of the CSAGI w e r e held in Brussels, M o s c o w , and B a r c e l o n a . T h e proposal to l a u n c h artificial satellites into orbit around the Earth was offi
cially m a d e in R o m e in 1954, with a view to extensive observations of solar and terrestrial p h e n o m e n a . Though m e n t i o n e d rarely, the role that these scientists played in the advent of the s p a c e a g e was decisive.
International Geophysical Y e a r 1957—
1958 was an u n p r e c e d e n t e d scientific suc
c e s s . T h e Sun was going through a particularly active period, the first Sputnik was l a u n c h e d , and 67 countries participated on a n o n g o v e r n m e n t a l basis through the in
itiative of scientists, largely due to the c o m p e t e n c e and motivation of Nicolet. What m a d e it possible was Nicolet's intelligence, his far
sightedness, his outstanding tact, his dedica
tion, and his e x c e p t i o n a l appetite for work within the propitious setting of the Institut Meteorologique, w h e r e his zeal and enthusi
asm e a r n e d him the lasting devotion of his c o l l e a g u e s .
T h e International Geophysical Year, dur
ing w h i c h the first artificial satellites w e r e l a u n c h e d , had lasting effects all over the world. For e x a m p l e , the instruments installed at Halley B a y in Antarctica by D o b s o n in 1957 led to the discovery of the spring reduc
tions in the o z o n e layer that w e r e published
in 1985. Many installations b e c a m e perma
nent, and scientific institutions were formed that s p e c i a l i z e d in studies a n d research by m e a n s of s p a c e vehicles. In Belgium, a group of scientists at the Observatoire and the Insti
tut Meteorologique, together with m e m b e r s of several universities, c r e a t e d the Centre Na
tional de R e c h e r c h e s de l ' E s p a c e , of w h i c h Nicolet was naturally m a d e director.
Pursuing his scientific work, Nicolet was the first to explain the braking effect of the at
m o s p h e r e on the first satellites. He was a c knowledged for this scientific milestone by the the United Nations in 1960. This work, for which h e had laid the foundations in 1938, was to win him the Daniel and F l o r e n c e Guggenheim prize of the International Acad
e m y of Astronautics in 1963, given for his dis
c o v e r i e s in astronautics over the previous 5 years. He o b t a i n e d this distinction after V a n Allen, w h o received it for discovering the ra
diation belts around the Earth. T h e highest authorities consulted Nicolet in Belgium, as w h e n President K e n n e d y w a s assassinated and r e p l a c e d by Vice-President J o h n s o n , s e n a t o r of T e x a s and c h a m p i o n of s p a c e ex
ploration w h o m Nicolet had met.
T h e Institut d ' A e r o n o m i e Spatiale de Bel- gique was established in D e c e m b e r 1964 at the request of King B a u d o u i n and on the in
structions of Prime Minister T h e o Lefevre.
Due, in part, to his wide repute, Nicolet was n a m e d its first director. His friend and col
league J a c q u e s Van Mieghem, director of the IRM, set aside part of the c l i m a t o l o g i c a l park for buildings on which construction b e g a n in 1970. T h e multidisciplinary nature of the staff, on which Nicolet insisted, was a direct c o n s e q u e n c e of his international e x p e r i e n c e in scientific institutions around the world. He saw s u c c e s s resulting from c o l l a b o r a t i o n .
In 1965, Nicolet r e c e i v e d the Hodgkins Medal from the Smithsonian Institution for his work in the field of a e r o n o m y . In 1970, h e attended an international meeting organized by the Massachusetts Institute of T e c h n o l o g y on the p r o b l e m of global pollution of the stratosphere. From 1971 to 1975, at the re
quest of the French Ministry of Transport, Nicolet formed part of the scientific commit
tee set up under the aegis of the French Acad
emy to study stratospheric aircraft flights.
Nitric o x i d e s p r o d u c e d by the aircraft en
gines threatened to potentially destroy the o z o n e layer.
Nicolet's assistance was also sought by the U.S. Department of Transportation. His work had led him to predict the p r e s e n c e of NO, N 02, and H N 03 in the middle atmos
phere. His knowledge on this subject was unique. While Nicolet was president of the In
ternational Association of G e o m a g n e t i s m and A e r o n o m y ( 1 9 5 9 - 1 9 6 3 ) , he introduced
the leading international minds in gas p h a s e chemistry a n d photochemistry to the secrets of a e r o n o m y .
Nicolet retired in 1977, but c o n t i n u e d his scientific work on the Sun's ultraviolet radia
tion, e s p e c i a l l y with Lucien Bossy, and on stratospheric chemistry. His unselfish spirit of c o o p e r a t i o n w o n him the B o w i e Medal, the highest distinction of the A m e r i c a n Geophysi
cal Union, for his role in determining photo- dissociation a n d photoionization in the atmosphere, predicting the p r e s e n c e of a he
lium belt around the Earth, a n d the p r e s e n c e of NO, N 02, H N 03, H 02, and H202 in the at
mosphere before any observations were made.
King B a u d o u i n e n n o b l e d Nicolet in 1986.
He was surprised by this attention, yet it m a d e him very happy b e c a u s e his constant wish was to b e a loyal servant to Belgium. As Belgium's present Minister for S c i e n c e Pol
icy, Yvan Ylieff, remarked r e c e n t l y : "Thanks to the action of Marcel Nicolet, the contribu
tion m a d e by Belgian r e s e a r c h e r s has at
tained an i m p o r t a n c e and a quality m u c h higher than c o u l d have b e e n e x p e c t e d of a small country, and this in a field that is recog
nized today as essential for the future of our planet."
It must b e r e c a l l e d too that Nicolet also taught at the Universities of Liege and Brus
sels, and served as a corresponding m e m b e r of the scientific a c a d e m i e s of the United States and F r a n c e , as well as a m e m b e r of the A c a d e m i e R o y a l e des S c i e n c e s , des Lettres et des B e a u x Arts of Belgium, of which h e was s c i e n c e class director. He was c h a i r m a n of four national c o m m i t t e e s : the Committee for S p a c e R e s e a r c h , the Committee of the Inter
national Union of G e o d e s y and Geophysics, the Committee of the International Union of Radio S c i e n c e , and the Committee for Inter
national Geophysical Cooperation.
Nicolet's wife, Alice, was the focus of his life. S h e a c c o m p a n i e d him on all of his major trips, and they w e r e very devoted to e a c h other. T h e r e w e r e n o children, and for most of his life h e would take lunch with her at h o m e . S h e provided him with a most gentle, pleasant h o m e environment, which was al
ways a private retreat for him.
T h e scientific journey, or m o r e precisely the n u m e r o u s scientific journeys interwoven by Nicolet, must b e a s u b j e c t for reflection by all those c o n c e r n e d with the development of scientific k n o w l e d g e in general and modern s c i e n c e in particular. All t h o s e — a n d there are many of t h e m — w h o witnessed his intel
lectual a p p r o a c h , w h o delighted in his lively mind and farsightedness, and benefited from his advice a n d teaching, were very lucky in
d e e d and o w e him p e r m a n e n t recognition.—
Baron Marcel Ackerman, Institut D'Aeronomie Spatiale de Belgique, Bruxelles, Belgium
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