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Dr. Michael Kurylo '66

Dr. Michael Kurylo began his scientific career at Boston College earning a Bachelor of Science degree in 1966, before completing his PhD at Catholic University just 3 years later. Winner of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s International Ozone Protection Award which recognizes “outstanding contributions to the protection of the Earth’s stratospheric ozone” throughout the world, Dr. Kurylo was acknowledged for his leadership role in many aspects of the examination of the relationship between stratospheric ozone depletion and manmade chemicals.

In presenting this award, the EPA lauded Dr. Kurylo as “an extraordinary scientist who was largely responsible for conceiving and executing airborne stratospheric expeditions that linked CFCs to ozone depletion in both the Antarctic and Arctic. He is a world-class expert in photochemistry and kinetics of the stratosphere and upper troposphere and the impact of changes there on the underlying troposphere and on global climate. He was a member of the International Ozone Trends Panel that persuaded DuPont to announce the abandonment of CFCs, which stimulated the rapid development and implementation of alternatives. Dr. Kurylo integrated chemistry findings over the Polar Regions from aircraft-based in situ measurements with the global pictures of ozone and other atmospheric molecules from research satellites to forecast the future evolution of ozone in the stratosphere. This was the basis for predicting how ozone responds to the decreasing atmospheric levels of halocarbons, resulting from the implementation of the Montreal Protocol. One example of the confidence and influence of Dr. Kurylo in persuading action on stratospheric ozone is the 1994 quote from the Guardian saying: ‘Everyone should be alarmed about this...Even if CFCs were phased out at once, it would take until 2060 or 2070 to restore the ozone layer to health - this legacy will be with us for a long time.’ Thanks to the research and influence of Dr. Kurylo, the world is now working to meet that date for ozone layer recovery.”

Currently Dr. Kurylo is a Senior Research Scientist at the Goddard Earth Sciences and Technology Center of the University of Maryland Baltimore County. Spending the majority of his career working at the Department of Commerce National Institute of Standards and Technology, Dr. Kurylo’s laboratory worked to understand the outcomes of “ozone-related and climate related trace gases in the atmosphere.” Moving to NASA in 2004, Dr. Kurylo was program manager of measurement efforts over the Polar Regions among national agencies and international participants to “forecast the future evolution of ozone in the Earth’s stratosphere.”

The EPA award was the latest in a long list of honors Dr. Kurylo has received in recognition of his exemplary work to preserve and protect the environment. These commendations have included numerous NASA Group Achievement Awards, the NASA Exceptional Service Medal and the William T. Pecora Award as a member of the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer Team. He also has served as one of this country’s technical reviewers providing review and/or assessments for the United National Environmental Programme and the World Meteorological Organization.

Alumni Notes

Rick Farrer PhD ’01 is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Colorado State University in Pueblo and Leslie Bishop BS ’90; PhD ’96 is an Associate Professor of Chemistry at Regis College. Elected to the Board of Directors of the American Society of Anesthesiologists for a 3-year term, Sean E. Hunt, MD BS ’74; MS ’76 was recently awarded a Master of Science in Health Care Management from Harvard University. Dr. Hunt is the Medical Director of the Dartmouth Ambulatory Surgery Center in Manchester, NH and an Assistant Professor at Dartmouth Medical School. His oldest son Christopher is currently an undergraduate at BC ’12.
Jianhong Hu PhD ’94 is a Senior Staff Engineer at Motorola Mobile Device. Kenneth Gonsalves MS ’74 is the Celanese Acetate Distinguished Professor of Polymer Chemistry at the Department of Chemistry & Cameron Applied Research Center, University of North Carolina, Charlotte. Qiang Wang PhD ’08 is an Associate Professor at Lanzhou University, Gansu, China.



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