Support the Eunice Newton Foote Award Endowment

Your gift supports the first APS-level prize honoring research in climate physics

The Topical Group on the Physics of Climate is currently one of the few APS units without an APS-level prize, nor is there an APS-level prize honoring research in climate physics. If we raise enough funds, this will become the second APS-level award honoring a female scientist, discounting early career awards. The first award was the Mildred Dresselhaus Prize in Nanoscience or Nanomaterials, which was created by generous contributors.

While our initial goal is $150,000 our long-term goal is to raise $300,000 to make this a Society-level prize.

Support the Foote Award

About Eunice Newton Foote

Eunice Newton Foote (1819-1888) was a pioneer in the investigation of the radiative effects of water vapor and carbon dioxide, and her experiments presaged the discovery of the greenhouse effect that so affects Earth's climate. She was also a prominent activist for women's rights and suffrage.

Foote's experiments in New York in the 1850s were the first to demonstrate the ability of atmospheric water vapor and carbon dioxide to absorb and be heated by solar radiation. In her 1856 paper “Circumstances Affecting the Heat of the Sun’s Rays,” she wrote that a cylinder with moist air became warmer than dry air when exposed to sunlight. Similar effects were found for carbon dioxide, indicating that an atmosphere with water vapor and carbon dioxide would become warmer than one without. Foote’s work, which pre-dated John Tyndall's discovery of the absorption of infrared radiation by water vapor and carbon dioxide, fell into obscurity only to be recognized over 100 years later, and is now widely regarded as one the most significant early discoveries in climate physics.

Contact

Please email the APS fundraising team with questions.