Tihomir Novakov
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Through Air pollution, Climate change and Nuclear physics
Early life
Novakov was born in Sombor, Serbia, in 1929. His father was a veterinarian and his mother was a homemaker. While in high school, Novakov began to build X-ray tubes and radios, furthering his scientific knowledge on his own.
After graduating from the University of Belgrade with a PhD in nuclear physics, he taught at the University of Belgrade and worked at the Vinča Nuclear Institute. Novakov migrated to the United States in 1963 and began working as a research scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He later founded an Aerosol Research Group which traveled the world conducting research on climate change.
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Career
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Novakov's group was the first to apply X-ray photoelectron and Raman spectroscopy to samples of atmospheric aerosols, which helped to establish the existence of a large elemental or soot fraction and provided definitive identification of physical structures similar to graphite and activated carbon in urban and remote aerosols, including in the Arctic. Following these discoveries, Novakov coined the term "black carbon" to refer to the sunlight-absorbing portion of ambient particulate matter. Novakov's aerosol research group, which included Hal Rosen, Ted Chang, Anthony Hansen, Ray Dod and Lara Gundel, developed new analytical techniques for measuring black carbon, the most notable of which is the aethalometer. The aethalometer, the name of which is derived from a Greek word that means "to blacken with soot", is today the mostly widely used instrument worldwide for measuring atmospheric concentrations of black carbon. Novakov hosted the first International Conference on Carbonaceous Particles in the Atmosphere at LBNL in 1978 to provide a forum for scientists to discuss this emerging research field. The conference series continues today alternating every few years between Berkeley and Vienna.
Novakov was a distinguished member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts.
Personal life
Novakov was married to Marica Cvetković from 1954 until her death in 2014. The couple had a daughter, Anna Novakov, now an art history professor at Saint Mary's College of California.
Novakov died on January 2, 2015, in Kensington, California from natural causes, aged 85.