Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen, who coined the term Anthropocene, dies

A photo of Paul Crutzen from around 2008. He's wearing a grey suit and tie, glasses and has grey hair. He's smiling at someone off frame.

Source: © Leber/Ullstein Bild via Getty Images

Cutzen’s passing means that all three scientists who won the 1995 chemistry Nobel prize for their ozone formation and decomposition work are gone

Paul Crutzen, the Dutch atmospheric chemist who was a co-recipient of the 1995 Nobel prize for chemistry for his work on stratospheric ozone destruction, died on 28 January at the age of 87 following several years of illness. His passing means that all three chemists who won that pivotal award for atmospheric chemistry are gone now. One of the other two co-recipients of the award, Mexican chemist Mario Molina, died just this past October, and the other joint winner, American chemist Sherwood Rowland, passed away in 2012.