UM Rosenstiel School Professor Emeritus Jospeh Prospero received a unique recognition at the 100th anniversary celebration of the Izana Observatory, a world-renowned atmospheric research station located in Tenerife, Canary Islands.
“For the celebration they asked me to present a short lecture on the history of our aerosol studies at Izana,” said Prospero. “At the end of the lecture – and to my great surprise – they presented to me a large aluminum plaque that was intended to be affixed to a building.”
The Izana Observatory building is now named the “Joseph M. Prospero Aerosol Research Laboratory.”
Known as the “grandfather of dust,” Prospero’s lifelong work has been to measure the effects of airborne dust. Since 1965, he and his colleagues have been measuring dust particles in Barbados, West Indies, thus creating the longest dust measurement data set in science.
“I have had a long association with the observatory, starting in 1974 when I started aerosol sampling at the site,” said Prospero. “Over the years we have continued to cooperate and we have held some major field campaigns there.”
About 100 people representing the major atmospheric and meteorological centers attended Prospero’s lecture.
