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Home > Featured Stories > International Connections > October 2007 > NC State Alumnus Shares 2007 Nobel Peace PrizeAlumnus Shares 2007 Nobel Peace Prize
He has a special talent for being able to bring together people with various backgrounds and ideas and making it work.
NC State professor Richard Bernhard, about Nobel prize recipient Rajendra Pachauri
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An NCSU.EDU Staff Report
A former North Carolina State University assistant professor and graduate student is in the spotlight, as a panel he chairs was named a co-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - chaired by Dr. Rajendra Kumar Pachauri - and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore share the prestigious award for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change as well as their desire to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change.
Pachauri obtained his graduate degrees from NC State, including a master’s degree in industrial engineering in 1972, and doctorates in industrial engineering and economics in 1974. He also served at NC State as an assistant professor (August 1974 - May 1975) and visiting faculty member (summer 1976 and 1977) in the Department of Economics.
Dr. Richard Bernhard, professor of industrial and systems engineering at NC State, remembers Pachauri well.
“Our daughters were the same age and often played together," Bernhard said. "Rajendra was a very talented student, but more importantly, he was one of the nicest people you could ever meet. Rajendra has been working in the area of environment for many years, and was interested in protecting the environment long before it became popular.
"It is only natural that he would be the chairman of this Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change," he said. "He has a special talent for being able to bring together people with various backgrounds and ideas and making it work.”
In a statement released by the IPCC, Pachauri paid tribute to the scientific community for its work in understanding and addressing global climate change.
“The experts and scientists are the backbone of the IPCC and they provide the knowledge which has contributed to the success of the IPCC,” he said. “I would also like to thank the governments of the world who support and facilitate the work of the panel.
"I hope, as the chairman of the organization, I am articulating the sentiments of the entire scientific community in acknowledging the enormous appreciation implied in the award of the Nobel Peace Prize and this would energize all the scientists and experts involved in the IPCC to do even more in the future.”
The IPCC, a U.N. body comprising 3,000 atmospheric scientists, oceanographers, ice specialists, economists and other experts, is the world's top scientific authority on global warming and its impact.
"The IPCC's strength lies in the processes and procedures that it follows,” Pachauri said. “Most important is its ability of carrying out rigorous scientific assessment, which undergoes the scrutiny of government representatives and therefore is accepted by governments.
"There is no other body in the world that is able to meet these twin objectives simultaneously,"
Pachauri was born in Nainital, India, in 1940. In addition to NC State, he has taught at universities in India and the United States, including Yale University. He was a research fellow at the World Bank in 1990, an adviser to the administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for energy and sustainable management of natural resources from 1994 through 1999 and was elected chairman of the IPCC in 2002.
“I think as far as the world is concerned, I think it's a very clear signal that the Nobel Prize Committee is clearly indicating that climate change is something that needs attention,” Pachauri said following the announcement of the award. “It's a serious problem, and it therefore requires urgent attention, from the world and the global community.”
Pachauri has been the head of TERI, The Energy and Resources Institute, since its establishment in New Delhi 25 years ago. TERI is an Indian institute of excellence working on scientific and technological research and strategic thinking in the fields of energy, environment, forestry, climate change, biotechnology, conservation of natural resources and sustainable development.
He has also authored and published a book of English verse, and recently joined the board of the Global Humanitarian Forum, founded by former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan.
"Rajendra was obviously very bright and he had the technical skills one would expect from an engineer," said Dr. Tom Grennes, a professor of economics who taught Pachauri in 1971. "He was also intellectually curious about broader economic and social issues, and very articulate and generous toward other people.
"I expected him to be successful at something, but having him share a Nobel Prize is a pleasant surprise."
