James W. Elkins was raised in McLean, VA, a suburb of Washington, DC. He attended McLean High School, a public high school specializing in education of the sciences. It was there that he developed his interest in science by participating in science fairs and national science competitions, including receiving Ford Future Scientists of America and the Westinghouse Science Talent Search (honors group) awards. He attended the University of Virginia where Professor Hugh P. Kelly, a leading expert on atomic physics and provost of the University, was his advisor. He received his Bachelor's degree in physics with high distinction in 1974. His interest in the atmospheric sciences increased while working as a summer student in 1974 under Drs. Hans Mayr and Jay Herman at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD in the Laboratory of Planetary Atmospheres. He received a research scholarship and attended graduate school in the Division of Applied Physics and Engineering at Harvard University. He studied atmospheric physics under Professor Michael B. McElroy, a pioneer in the studies of global warming and the depletion of stratospheric ozone. After receiving a Master's degree in science in 1975, he worked on the atmospheric source of nitrous oxide from the ocean as his thesis topic. He received his Ph.D. in applied physics in 1978. He was a research fellow in aquatic chemistry from 1978 through 1979 under Professors McElroy and Steven C. Wofsy.
Since physical measurements and standards were important to atmospheric studies,
he took a position under Mr. Ernest E. Hughes in the Center for Analytical Chemistry
at the National Bureau of Standards (currently, NIST) in Gaithersburg, MD in
1979. While at NIST, he prepared the first Standard Reference Material for atmospheric
nitrous oxide, and measured the infrared cross-section of CFC-11 and -12, and
methyl chloride. In 1986, he joined the Geophysical Monitoring for Climate Change
Program as the chief of the Nitrous Oxide and Halocarbons Group at the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Boulder, CO. The group has
grown from eight to 22 employees and has become the Halocarbons and other Atmospheric
Trace Species Group. Dr. Elkins has authored or co-authored over 70 publications
in the fields of global warming and the depletion of stratospheric ozone. His
research has covered measurements of atmospheric trace species from the depths
of the Pacific Ocean to the heights of the stratosphere. He is the principal
instrumental designer for the Airborne Chromatograph for Atmospheric Trace Species
(ACATS) that has flown on NASA's ER-2 aircraft. He was the lead author on a
paper in Nature that reported the first observational evidence of slowing down
in the growth of the chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) as a result of the United Nations
Montreal Protocol. This paper has won the 1994 NOAA Scientific Paper of the
Year Award. Since Dr. Elkins and his colleagues have won seven consecutive NOAA
Scientific Paper of the Year Awards. He has received numerous other awards including
three NASA's Group Achievement Awards to the 1993-94 Stratospheric Photochemistry,
Aerosols and Dynamics Experiment (SPADE), 1994 Airborne Southern Hemisphere
Ozone Experiment (ASHOE), the Polar Ozone Loss in Arctic Region In Summer (POLARIS),
the SAGE-III Ozone Loss Validation Experiment (SOLVE) Teams. The Department
of Commerce awarded him in 1997 the Silver Medal Award (along with Dr. J.H.
Butler, and S. A. Montzka). He was the lead principal investigator on the balloon
gas chromatograph, the Lightweight Airborne Chromatograph Experiment (LACE).
He is building a new instrument for studying atmospheric chemistry and global
warming and received the funding from NASA's instrument incubator program (IIP).
He recently completed an experiment to measure ozone-depleting chemicals on
the Trans-Siberian Railway. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, American Geophysical
Union, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Chemical
Society, and the American Institute of Physics.
James W. Elkins
NOAA/CMDL R/CMDL1
325 Broadway
Boulder, CO 80305
USA
James W. Elkins
NOAA/CMDL
325 Broadway
Boulder, CO 80305
USA
Tel: +1 303 497 6224
Fax: +1 303 497 6290
email: James.W.Elkins@noaa.gov