{"id":46,"date":"2026-02-11T07:56:45","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T07:56:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.io3c.org\/?p=39"},"modified":"2026-02-11T07:56:45","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T07:56:45","slug":"memoriam-michael-mcelroy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/io3c.ipsl.fr\/?p=46","title":{"rendered":"In Memoriam Michael McElroy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Remembered as a pioneering atmospheric scientist who bridged planetary science, climate policy, and undergraduate education, Michael B. McElroy, 86, died earlier this month from cancer.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

When exams rolled around, Michael B. McElroy was a force to be reckoned with.<\/span><\/p>\n

Following one particularly brutal test in graduate school, McElroy\u2019s classmates decided that they could only assess their own performance after hearing from the resident wunderkind. When McElroy said he also found it difficult, they rejoiced \u2014 only to find out that he\u2019d misread the exam.<\/span><\/p>\n

While everyone else saw that they had been asked to answer only three out of the 10 questions, McElroy had pushed through all 10.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI thought that was so typical of him,\u201d his wife, A. Veronica McElroy, said.<\/span><\/p>\n

This kind of fast-paced analysis was a hallmark of McElroy\u2019s scientific approach. Through his career, he shifted from examining planetary atmospheres in the heyday of the space race to studying human-induced climate change \u2014 including research on the ozone layer that shaped the United Nations\u2019 Montreal Protocol in 1987. In 2024, he was awarded the American Geophysical Union\u2019s William Bowie Medal, the organization\u2019s highest honor.<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the decades, he took an active role in shaping key environmental initiatives at Harvard, leading the University-wide Committee on the Environment, helping found the Environmental Science and Public Policy concentration, and spearheading the Harvard-China Project on Energy, Economy, and Environment.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1995, McElroy served as the chairman of MEDEA, a task force appointed by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore \u201969, to use data from U.S. intelligence to better understand the environment.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gore wrote in a statement to The Crimson that McElroy was \u201cthoughtful and unrelenting in his efforts to advance efforts to protect the livability of our planet for future generations.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHis work to develop and deepen ties between scientists, economists, policymakers, and academia on the greatest challenge of our lifetimes \u2013 the climate crisis \u2013 will continue to pay dividends for decades to come.\u201d he added.<\/span><\/p>\n

McElroy died earlier this month from cancer at the age of 86, a little over a week after officially retiring from teaching. He is survived by Veronica McElroy and their children, Brenda \u201cBren\u201d McElroy and Stephen McElroy.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018A Towering Intellect\u2019<\/span><\/h2>\n

Born in Dublin, Ireland, McElroy received his undergraduate degree from Queen\u2019s University in Belfast. He continued his graduate studies at Queen\u2019s, earning a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics in 1962 at the age of 23 and moving to the University of Wisconsin that same year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Arriving in the U.S. amid the flurry of the space race, McElroy turned his focus to atmospheric science. As a member of the NASA Lunar and Planetary missions board, McElroy used satellite observations of Mars, Jupiter, and Venus to reconstruct the behavior of their atmospheres.<\/span><\/p>\n

McElroy arrived in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1970, recruited in part for his work on planetary atmospheres. At only 30 years old, McElroy became one of Harvard\u2019s youngest tenured professors.<\/span><\/p>\n

Because of his young age, he was often mistaken for a graduate student when he went out to lunch, according to Yuk L. Yung, a planetary professor at the California Institute of Technology and one of McElroy\u2019s early Ph.D. students.<\/span><\/p>\n

At Harvard, McElroy began focusing on Earth\u2019s atmosphere and the impact of human activity. His research on the role of bromine and nitrous oxide in ozone layer depletion helped shape the 1987 Montreal Protocol, an international agreement that called on countries to ban substances that depleted the ozone layer.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe thought about the Earth as a planet,\u201d longtime collaborator and Harvard Atmospheric and Environmental Science professor Steven C. Wofsy said. \u201cToday, that doesn\u2019t sound like a particularly revolutionary idea, but back in those days \u2014 particularly when thinking about the chemistry of the atmosphere or air pollution \u2014 people really thought about it in much more local terms.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In those years \u2014 while working on papers with Wofsy and then-postdoctoral researchers Jennifer A. Logan and Michael J. Prather \u2014 McElroy remained formidable in his scientific approach. He would spend hours physically cutting out the best sentences in a printed draft of a paper and then suturing them together with new language.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the most hilarious way to write a paper,\u201d Prather, now an earth system science professor at the University of California, Irvine, said. \u201cWe\u2019d never seen this before.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

That intensity was one of McElroy\u2019s many characteristic traits.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a towering intellect, and I actually was always a bit intimidated by him, so when I got to Harvard, I decided I was not going to really work with him,\u201d Environmental Science and Engineering chair Daniel J. Jacob, then a postdoctoral researcher invited to work at Harvard by McElroy, said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI developed a lot of independence pretty early on, and some of that rubbed him the wrong way, and we had our tiffs \u2014 but he always supported my career, and I\u2019m extremely grateful to him for that,\u201d he added.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018Being Let in on the Secret\u2019<\/span><\/h2>\n

McElroy was no stranger to scientific and academic disagreements.<\/span><\/p>\n

When he first joined Harvard\u2019s faculty, the Division of Applied Sciences had little room for academics like himself, who were in the less established fields of atmospheric science, oceanography, and planetary science.<\/span><\/p>\n

To make space for these growing fields, the Earth and Planetary Sciences department was created in 1986. As the department\u2019s founding chair, McElroy treaded uncertain waters, bridging the gap between the old and new guard of earth science.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe oversaw this transition, and really helped create an integrated earth science program that now is kind of the standard at the top departments all over the U.S.,\u201d geology professor Daniel P. Schrag said.<\/span><\/p>\n

McElroy\u2019s interdisciplinary approach profoundly shaped his interactions with Harvard politics and undergraduate education.<\/span><\/p>\n

He chaired the University-wide Committee on the Environment starting in 1991, the same year he was shortlisted<\/a> as a candidate for University president. Working in coordination with then-University Provost Jerry R. Green and other professors, McElroy helped establish the Environmental Science and Public Policy concentration in 1993.<\/span><\/p>\n

Students and faculty alike pointed to his dedication as a teacher. He was always available to talk, they said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tomoki Matsuno \u201925, one of McElroy\u2019s thesis advisees, said McElroy was a gentle mentor \u2014 but knew when to double down on an idea if necessary.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cProfessor McElroy was very kind, soft \u2014 generally, a really soft professor \u2014 but at the same time, he believes what he thinks, he believes what is good for students,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Inside the classroom, Wofsy said, McElroy would approach problems from the ground up \u2014 exploring the base-level mechanics of environmental science rather than feeding students big-picture overviews.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t just being told a story,\u201d Wofsy said. \u201cIt was more like being let in on the secret: How does it work?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The early years of ESPP were tense and challenging. But according to public policy professor William C. Clark, who taught the first ESPP junior seminar with him, McElroy \u201cjust had this amazing ability to not take himself \u2014 and thus not take us \u2014 too seriously.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat helped a lot, because it kept this from being so stressful that you ended up all hating each other, and instead, we just enjoyed having good times with each other,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Several former students said it paid off. Noelle E. Selin \u201900, an earth, atmospheric and planetary sciences professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and former student of McElroy\u2019s, said his class on atmospheric chemistry convinced her to concentrate in ESPP because of its interdisciplinary focus on politics and government.<\/span><\/p>\n

Beyond just teaching policy, McElroy also actively worked to shape it, even across international lines. The same year ESPP was established, Green worked with McElroy to create the Harvard-China Project on Energy, Economy, and Environment \u2014 a research program on China\u2019s atmospheric environment and energy system.<\/span><\/p>\n

While McElroy retired from teaching on Dec. 31, 2025, he planned to continue helping lead the Harvard-China Project.<\/span><\/p>\n

This kind of commitment didn\u2019t come as a surprise. According to Veronica McElroy, he was Crimson through and through.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe loved Harvard, and he got from Harvard as much as Harvard gave him,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.thecrimson.com\/article\/2026\/1\/23\/michael-mcelroy-obituary<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Remembered as a pioneering atmospheric scientist who bridged planetary science, climate policy, and undergraduate education, Michael B. McElroy, 86, died earlier this month from cancer. When exams rolled around, Michael B. McElroy was a force to be reckoned with. Following one particularly brutal test in graduate school, McElroy\u2019s classmates decided that they could only assess […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3],"class_list":["post-46","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-necrology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/io3c.ipsl.fr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/io3c.ipsl.fr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/io3c.ipsl.fr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/io3c.ipsl.fr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/io3c.ipsl.fr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/io3c.ipsl.fr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/io3c.ipsl.fr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/io3c.ipsl.fr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/io3c.ipsl.fr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}