Susan Solomon – 1956–

Solomon was a chemist working for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in 1986 when she led an expedition to Antarctica to discover why the depletion of the earth’s ozone layer was happening faster than expected and happening especially fast in Antarctica. Solomon discovered high levels of chlorine oxide in the stratosphere over Antarctica, which proved that the human use of chloroflourocarbons (CFCs)—abundant in refrigerants and aerosol products—was largely responsible for the depletion, which threatened the earth’s environment. The discovery led to a ban on CFCs—and a great improvement in the condition of the ozone layer.