Lonnie G. Thompson

Thompson has made 63 field expeditions, almost all as team leader, to Earth's high-mountain regions as well as Antarctica. He has brought back ice cores from seemingly impossible places and has analyzed them meticulously to read the climatic history of some of the most important regions on Earth. He has merged these scientifically crucial results with careful observations of the changing environment and has made the combination both captivating and useful for policymakers and the general public. Honors include the National Medal of Science, National Academy of Sciences, Foreign Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Benjamin Franklin Medal, Vega Medal, and the Tyler Prize.