André Berger
Encyclopedia
André Léon Georges Chevalier Berger (born July 30, 1942, Acoz) is a Belgian professor and climatologist. He is best known for his significant contribution to the renaissance and further development of the Astronomical Theory of Paleoclimates and as a cited pioneer of the interdisciplinary study of climate dynamics and history.
(1973) and Master Sciences in meteorology of Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(1971). He received an Honorary doctoral degree (Dr. h.c.) from the Université d’Aix-Marseille III (1989), the Université Paul Sabatier de Toulouse (1999) and the Faculté Polytechnique de Mons (2004). He is presently Emeritus Professor and Senior Researcher at UCL.
André Berger is a very well known figure of paleoclimatology
. He is one of the pioneer who have participated to the renaissance of the astronomical theory of paleoclimate (also known as the Milankovitch theory
) in the 70s, to its promotion and development in the following decades. He has renewed this theory and improved the accuracy of the long term variations of the astronomical parameters used for the calculation of the incoming solar radiation (insolation
) over the last and next millions of years. He became known in 1977 with his paper in Nature and later in Journal of Atmospheric Physics (1978) delivering all the spectral components of the long term variations of eccentricity
, obliquity (axial tilt
) and climatic precession
. His contributions have played a key role in the time scale calibration and interpretation of the paleoclimate records and in the modelling of the glacial-interglacial
cycles. He has mainly worked on the simulation of past and future climates in close collaboration with physicists and geologists worldwide. He is at the origin of the very first Earth model of intermediate complexity.
He was Full Professor of meteorology and climatology at UCL, Maître de Conférences (Faculty Lecturer) at the Université de Liège where he was Chaire Francqui in 1989, Visiting Professor at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and invited in many other universities in Europe, America and Asia. He was invited to deliver the Union Lecture of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics
(IUGG) in 1987, the Society Lecture of European Geophysical Society (EGS) in 1994 and the Slichter Lecture at the University of California Los Angeles in 2001. He was chairman of the Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics Georges Lemaître from 1978 to 2001, a period during which he started there to develop climate research. He was the supervisor of 22 doctoral degree theses and continues to serve as a jury member for academic tenure and habilitation.
He is the author of « Le Climate de la Terre – un passé pour quel avenir ? » . He started to contribute, as early as in the 1970s, to the awareness of Society of the global warming
and the impact of human activities on climate change
.
and more specifically the astronomical theory of paleoclimates
and climate modelling. In the 1970s, he improved significantly the accuracy of long-term variations of obliquity
and climatic precession used for calculating the incoming solar radiation (insolation). He calculated the periods characterizing the variations of the astronomical parameters, showing that, in addition to the known 40-ka period of obliquity
(ka = thousand years) and 21-ka period of climatic precession
, there are periods of 400 ka, 125 ka, 95 ka and 100 ka in eccentricity
, of 54 ka in obliquity
and of 23 ka and 19 ka in climatic precession. Under the leadership of Nicholas Shackleton
,), he contributed to improve the age of the Brunhes-Matuyama reversal. He identified the instability of the astronomical periods and the existence of a 1.3-Ma period in the amplitude modulation of obliquity. He demonstrated the relationship between the different periods of the astronomical parameters, estimated the value of these astronomical periods over tens to hundreds of millions of years, and showed the origin of the 100-ka period in astronomy and, under the leadership of J. Imbrie
, in paleoclimates. He delivered an easy-to-handle and accurate calculation of the long-term variations of the daily, seasonal and caloric irradiations. With his team, he developed one of the first Earth Model of Intermediate Complexity (EMICs). Based on such climate model
s, he showed the importance of the long-term variations of insolation
to simulate the glacial-interglacial cycles , the possible exceptional length of our interglacial
, the importance of the 400-ka period in searching for analogues of our present-day and future climate, the relative role of the multiple feedbacks
involved in the explanation of the glacial-interglacial
cycles, water vapour in particular. More recently he initiated research on the origin of the east Asian summer monsoon
in China and started to work on the diversity of climate over the last nine interglacials.
which he is Honorary President ;
member of the First Scientific Steering Committee of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme
on Global Changes of the Past (1988–1990), Committee which is at the origin of PAGES. In 1991, he was the initiator of the Paleoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Project (PMIP
).
For the Commission of the European Communities, he was chairman of the Coordination Group on Climate Processes and Climate Change of the Climatology and Natural Hazards Program (1988–1992), of the External Advisory Group on Global Change, Climate and Biodiversity (2000–2002) and member of the Contact Group of the Climate Programme on Reconstruction of Past Climate, Climate Models and Anthropogenic Impacts on Climate from 1980 to 1983 (groups which are at the origin of the CEC Framework Programme).
For the Scientific Committee of NATO, he was chairman of the Special Programme Panels on the Science of Global Environmental Change (1992) and on Air-Sea Interactions (1981) and of the programme Advisory Committee of the International Technical Meeting on Air Pollution Modelling and its Applications (1980–1985).
He was also member of Committees in charge of advising policy makers and scientific institutions, in particular the European Environment Agency (EEA, 2002–2009), the European Science Foundation (ESF), Gaz de France (1994–1999 ) and Electricité de France (1998–2009). Member of the scientific committee of universities and research institutes, among which Laboratoire des sciences du climat et de l'environnement, Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique, Département Terre-Atmosphère-Océan de l'Ecole Normale Supérieure, Institut Paul Simon Laplace et Collège de France in Paris, Laboratoire de Glaciologie et de Géophysique de l'Environnement and the European University and Scientific Pole of Grenoble, LEGOS in Toulouse, Météo-France, Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in Great-Britain and Beijing Normal University. He is Voting Member of the BAEF (Belgian American Educational Foundation, Herbert Hoover Commission for Relief in Belgium) which he was Fellow in 1970-1971.
He has organised and chaired international meetings, among which the First International School of Climatology on Climatic Variations and Variability, Facts and Theories at the Ettore Majorana Center
of Erice in Sicily, from 9 to 21 March 1980 , the symposium Milankovitch
and Climate (with J. Imbrie) at the Lamont Doherty Geological Observatory from 30 November to 3 December 1982 , the tenth General Assembly of the European Geophysical Society
in Louvain-la-Neuve from 30 July to 4 August 1984, the IUGG symposium Contribution of Geophysical Sciences to Climate Change Studies in Vancouver in August 1987 , the symposium Climate and Geo-Sciences, a Challenge for Science and Society for the XXIst Century in Louvain-la-Neuve in May 1988 , the symposium Climate and Ozone at the Dawn of the third Millennium in honour of Paul Crutzen, Nobel Prize 1995, of Willi Dansgaard
and Nicholas Shackleton
, Crafoord Prize 1995 and, with Claude Lorius
, Tyler Prize for Environment 1996, the Milutin Milankovitch anniversary symposia in Belgrade in 2004 and 2009, the first Colloque à l'étranger du Collège de France at the Palais des Académies in Bruxelles on 8–9 May 2006 (with J. Reisse and Jean-Pierre Changeux
), the Third von Humboldt International Conference on East Asian Monsoon, Past, Present and Future, at the Chinese Academy of Sciences
in Beijing from 24 to 30 August 2007 (with Z. Ding) . In 2009, a special issue of Climate of the Past has been made in his honour which preface is dedicated to his works.
In Belgium, he is a co-founding member (with Alain Hubert et Hugo Decleir, 1999) and member of the Administration Council of the International Polar Foundation , member of Mgr Lemaître Foundation (1995), member of Fonds Léopold III de Belgique for the Exploration and Conservation of Nature, of the Scientific Council of GreenFacts, administrator of the Fondation Hoover Louvain and member of the National Committee of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) which he was the president from 2000 to 2004, of the National Committee of the International Geosphere-Biospere Programme on Global Change (IGBP), of the National Committee for Quaternary Research (BELQUA), of the National Committee for Antarctic Research (SCAR) and of the National Committee of the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE)
Biography
Trained in mathematics, André Berger is doctor of sciences of the Université catholique de LouvainUniversité catholique de Louvain
The Université catholique de Louvain, sometimes known, especially in Belgium, as UCL, is Belgium's largest French-speaking university. It is located in Louvain-la-Neuve and in Brussels...
(1973) and Master Sciences in meteorology of Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
(1971). He received an Honorary doctoral degree (Dr. h.c.) from the Université d’Aix-Marseille III (1989), the Université Paul Sabatier de Toulouse (1999) and the Faculté Polytechnique de Mons (2004). He is presently Emeritus Professor and Senior Researcher at UCL.
André Berger is a very well known figure of paleoclimatology
Paleoclimatology
Paleoclimatology is the study of changes in climate taken on the scale of the entire history of Earth. It uses a variety of proxy methods from the Earth and life sciences to obtain data previously preserved within rocks, sediments, ice sheets, tree rings, corals, shells and microfossils; it then...
. He is one of the pioneer who have participated to the renaissance of the astronomical theory of paleoclimate (also known as the Milankovitch theory
Milankovitch cycles
Milankovitch theory describes the collective effects of changes in the Earth's movements upon its climate, named after Serbian civil engineer and mathematician Milutin Milanković, who worked on it during First World War internment...
) in the 70s, to its promotion and development in the following decades. He has renewed this theory and improved the accuracy of the long term variations of the astronomical parameters used for the calculation of the incoming solar radiation (insolation
Insolation
Insolation is a measure of solar radiation energy received on a given surface area in a given time. It is commonly expressed as average irradiance in watts per square meter or kilowatt-hours per square meter per day...
) over the last and next millions of years. He became known in 1977 with his paper in Nature and later in Journal of Atmospheric Physics (1978) delivering all the spectral components of the long term variations of eccentricity
Orbital eccentricity
The orbital eccentricity of an astronomical body is the amount by which its orbit deviates from a perfect circle, where 0 is perfectly circular, and 1.0 is a parabola, and no longer a closed orbit...
, obliquity (axial tilt
Axial tilt
In astronomy, axial tilt is the angle between an object's rotational axis, and a line perpendicular to its orbital plane...
) and climatic precession
Precession
Precession is a change in the orientation of the rotation axis of a rotating body. It can be defined as a change in direction of the rotation axis in which the second Euler angle is constant...
. His contributions have played a key role in the time scale calibration and interpretation of the paleoclimate records and in the modelling of the glacial-interglacial
Ice age
An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...
cycles. He has mainly worked on the simulation of past and future climates in close collaboration with physicists and geologists worldwide. He is at the origin of the very first Earth model of intermediate complexity.
He was Full Professor of meteorology and climatology at UCL, Maître de Conférences (Faculty Lecturer) at the Université de Liège where he was Chaire Francqui in 1989, Visiting Professor at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and invited in many other universities in Europe, America and Asia. He was invited to deliver the Union Lecture of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics
International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics
The International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics is a non-governmental organisation dedicated to the scientific study of the Earth using geophysical and geodesic techniques. The IUGG was established in 1919. Some areas within its scope are environmental preservation, reduction of the effects of...
(IUGG) in 1987, the Society Lecture of European Geophysical Society (EGS) in 1994 and the Slichter Lecture at the University of California Los Angeles in 2001. He was chairman of the Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics Georges Lemaître from 1978 to 2001, a period during which he started there to develop climate research. He was the supervisor of 22 doctoral degree theses and continues to serve as a jury member for academic tenure and habilitation.
He is the author of « Le Climate de la Terre – un passé pour quel avenir ? » . He started to contribute, as early as in the 1970s, to the awareness of Society of the global warming
Global warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
and the impact of human activities on climate change
Climate change
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
.
Works
André Berger’s field of research is geosciencesEarth science
Earth science is an all-embracing term for the sciences related to the planet Earth. It is arguably a special case in planetary science, the Earth being the only known life-bearing planet. There are both reductionist and holistic approaches to Earth sciences...
and more specifically the astronomical theory of paleoclimates
Milankovitch cycles
Milankovitch theory describes the collective effects of changes in the Earth's movements upon its climate, named after Serbian civil engineer and mathematician Milutin Milanković, who worked on it during First World War internment...
and climate modelling. In the 1970s, he improved significantly the accuracy of long-term variations of obliquity
Axial tilt
In astronomy, axial tilt is the angle between an object's rotational axis, and a line perpendicular to its orbital plane...
and climatic precession used for calculating the incoming solar radiation (insolation). He calculated the periods characterizing the variations of the astronomical parameters, showing that, in addition to the known 40-ka period of obliquity
Axial tilt
In astronomy, axial tilt is the angle between an object's rotational axis, and a line perpendicular to its orbital plane...
(ka = thousand years) and 21-ka period of climatic precession
Precession
Precession is a change in the orientation of the rotation axis of a rotating body. It can be defined as a change in direction of the rotation axis in which the second Euler angle is constant...
, there are periods of 400 ka, 125 ka, 95 ka and 100 ka in eccentricity
Orbital eccentricity
The orbital eccentricity of an astronomical body is the amount by which its orbit deviates from a perfect circle, where 0 is perfectly circular, and 1.0 is a parabola, and no longer a closed orbit...
, of 54 ka in obliquity
Axial tilt
In astronomy, axial tilt is the angle between an object's rotational axis, and a line perpendicular to its orbital plane...
and of 23 ka and 19 ka in climatic precession. Under the leadership of Nicholas Shackleton
Nicholas Shackleton
Sir Nicholas John Shackleton FRS was a British geologist and climatologist who specialised in the Quaternary Period...
,), he contributed to improve the age of the Brunhes-Matuyama reversal. He identified the instability of the astronomical periods and the existence of a 1.3-Ma period in the amplitude modulation of obliquity. He demonstrated the relationship between the different periods of the astronomical parameters, estimated the value of these astronomical periods over tens to hundreds of millions of years, and showed the origin of the 100-ka period in astronomy and, under the leadership of J. Imbrie
John Imbrie
John Imbrie is an American paleoceanographer best known for his work on the theory of ice ages.After serving with the 10th Mountain Division in Italy during World War II, Imbrie earned his bachelor's degree from Princeton University. He then went on to receive a Ph.D. from Yale University in 1951...
, in paleoclimates. He delivered an easy-to-handle and accurate calculation of the long-term variations of the daily, seasonal and caloric irradiations. With his team, he developed one of the first Earth Model of Intermediate Complexity (EMICs). Based on such climate model
Climate model
Climate models use quantitative methods to simulate the interactions of the atmosphere, oceans, land surface, and ice. They are used for a variety of purposes from study of the dynamics of the climate system to projections of future climate...
s, he showed the importance of the long-term variations of insolation
Insolation
Insolation is a measure of solar radiation energy received on a given surface area in a given time. It is commonly expressed as average irradiance in watts per square meter or kilowatt-hours per square meter per day...
to simulate the glacial-interglacial cycles , the possible exceptional length of our interglacial
Interglacial
An Interglacial period is a geological interval of warmer global average temperature lasting thousands of years that separates consecutive glacial periods within an ice age...
, the importance of the 400-ka period in searching for analogues of our present-day and future climate, the relative role of the multiple feedbacks
Climate change feedback
Climate change feedback is important in the understanding of global warming because feedback processes may amplify or diminish the effect of each climate forcing, and so play an important part in determining the overall climate sensitivity...
involved in the explanation of the glacial-interglacial
Ice age
An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...
cycles, water vapour in particular. More recently he initiated research on the origin of the east Asian summer monsoon
Monsoon
Monsoon is traditionally defined as a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation, but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with the asymmetric heating of land and sea...
in China and started to work on the diversity of climate over the last nine interglacials.
Functions
André Berger has served in many international bodies involved in the development of present-day and past climate research. He was Chairman of the International Climate Commission of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (1987–1993) and of the Paleoclimate Commission of the International Union of Quaternary Research (1987–1995) ; President of the European Geophysical Society (2000–2002), co-creator of the European Geosciences UnionEuropean Geosciences Union
The European Geosciences Union is an interdisciplinary non-profit learned society open to individuals who are professionally engaged in or associated with geosciences, planetary and space sciences, and related studies.The mission statement of the EGU is "Dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in...
which he is Honorary President ;
member of the First Scientific Steering Committee of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme
International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme
The International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme is a research programme that studies the phenomenon of global change.The International Council of Scientific Unions, a coordinating body of national science organizations, launched IGBP in 1986...
on Global Changes of the Past (1988–1990), Committee which is at the origin of PAGES. In 1991, he was the initiator of the Paleoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Project (PMIP
Paleoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Project
The Paleoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Project is a project, somewhat along the lines of AMIP or CMIP, to coordinate and encourage the systematic study of atmospheric general circulation models and to assess their ability to simulate large climate changes such as those that occurred in the...
).
For the Commission of the European Communities, he was chairman of the Coordination Group on Climate Processes and Climate Change of the Climatology and Natural Hazards Program (1988–1992), of the External Advisory Group on Global Change, Climate and Biodiversity (2000–2002) and member of the Contact Group of the Climate Programme on Reconstruction of Past Climate, Climate Models and Anthropogenic Impacts on Climate from 1980 to 1983 (groups which are at the origin of the CEC Framework Programme).
For the Scientific Committee of NATO, he was chairman of the Special Programme Panels on the Science of Global Environmental Change (1992) and on Air-Sea Interactions (1981) and of the programme Advisory Committee of the International Technical Meeting on Air Pollution Modelling and its Applications (1980–1985).
He was also member of Committees in charge of advising policy makers and scientific institutions, in particular the European Environment Agency (EEA, 2002–2009), the European Science Foundation (ESF), Gaz de France (1994–1999 ) and Electricité de France (1998–2009). Member of the scientific committee of universities and research institutes, among which Laboratoire des sciences du climat et de l'environnement, Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique, Département Terre-Atmosphère-Océan de l'Ecole Normale Supérieure, Institut Paul Simon Laplace et Collège de France in Paris, Laboratoire de Glaciologie et de Géophysique de l'Environnement and the European University and Scientific Pole of Grenoble, LEGOS in Toulouse, Météo-France, Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in Great-Britain and Beijing Normal University. He is Voting Member of the BAEF (Belgian American Educational Foundation, Herbert Hoover Commission for Relief in Belgium) which he was Fellow in 1970-1971.
He has organised and chaired international meetings, among which the First International School of Climatology on Climatic Variations and Variability, Facts and Theories at the Ettore Majorana Center
Ettore Majorana Foundation and Centre for Scientific Culture
Ettore Majorana Foundation and Centre for Scientific Culture is an organization based in Sicily, Italy. The President of EMFCSC is Prof. Antonino Zichichi. It sponsors the International School of Subnuclear Physics whose Director is Prof...
of Erice in Sicily, from 9 to 21 March 1980 , the symposium Milankovitch
Milutin Milankovic
Milutin Milanković was a Serbian geophysicist and civil engineer, best known for his theory of ice ages, suggesting a relationship between Earth's long-term climate changes and periodic changes in its orbit, now known as Milankovitch cycles. Milanković gave two fundamental contributions to global...
and Climate (with J. Imbrie) at the Lamont Doherty Geological Observatory from 30 November to 3 December 1982 , the tenth General Assembly of the European Geophysical Society
European Geosciences Union
The European Geosciences Union is an interdisciplinary non-profit learned society open to individuals who are professionally engaged in or associated with geosciences, planetary and space sciences, and related studies.The mission statement of the EGU is "Dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in...
in Louvain-la-Neuve from 30 July to 4 August 1984, the IUGG symposium Contribution of Geophysical Sciences to Climate Change Studies in Vancouver in August 1987 , the symposium Climate and Geo-Sciences, a Challenge for Science and Society for the XXIst Century in Louvain-la-Neuve in May 1988 , the symposium Climate and Ozone at the Dawn of the third Millennium in honour of Paul Crutzen, Nobel Prize 1995, of Willi Dansgaard
Willi Dansgaard
Willi Dansgaard was a Danish paleoclimatologist. He was Professor Emeritus of Geophysics at the University of Copenhagen and a member of the Royal Danish Academy of Science and Letters, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Icelandic Academy of Sciences, and the Danish Geophysical Society.-...
and Nicholas Shackleton
Nicholas Shackleton
Sir Nicholas John Shackleton FRS was a British geologist and climatologist who specialised in the Quaternary Period...
, Crafoord Prize 1995 and, with Claude Lorius
Claude Lorius
Claude Lorius is a French glaciologist. He is currently director emeritus of research at CNRS. He was the director of the Laboratoire de glaciologie et geophysique de l'environnement in Grenoble from 1983 to 1988....
, Tyler Prize for Environment 1996, the Milutin Milankovitch anniversary symposia in Belgrade in 2004 and 2009, the first Colloque à l'étranger du Collège de France at the Palais des Académies in Bruxelles on 8–9 May 2006 (with J. Reisse and Jean-Pierre Changeux
Jean-Pierre Changeux
Jean-Pierre Changeux is a French neuroscientist known for his research in several fields of biology, from the structure and function of proteins , to the early development of the nervous system up to cognitive functions...
), the Third von Humboldt International Conference on East Asian Monsoon, Past, Present and Future, at the Chinese Academy of Sciences
Chinese Academy of Sciences
The Chinese Academy of Sciences , formerly known as Academia Sinica, is the national academy for the natural sciences of the People's Republic of China. It is an institution of the State Council of China. It is headquartered in Beijing, with institutes all over the People's Republic of China...
in Beijing from 24 to 30 August 2007 (with Z. Ding) . In 2009, a special issue of Climate of the Past has been made in his honour which preface is dedicated to his works.
In Belgium, he is a co-founding member (with Alain Hubert et Hugo Decleir, 1999) and member of the Administration Council of the International Polar Foundation , member of Mgr Lemaître Foundation (1995), member of Fonds Léopold III de Belgique for the Exploration and Conservation of Nature, of the Scientific Council of GreenFacts, administrator of the Fondation Hoover Louvain and member of the National Committee of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) which he was the president from 2000 to 2004, of the National Committee of the International Geosphere-Biospere Programme on Global Change (IGBP), of the National Committee for Quaternary Research (BELQUA), of the National Committee for Antarctic Research (SCAR) and of the National Committee of the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE)
Awards
- 2010 Prix Georges Lemaître of the Amis et Anciens de l'UCL and of the Fondation Louvain
- 2008 Winner of an Advanced Investigators Grant of the European Research Council
- 2007 Foreign member of the Academy of Science of the Royal Society of CanadaRoyal Society of CanadaThe Royal Society of Canada , may also operate under the more descriptive name RSC: The Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada , is the oldest association of scientists and scholars in Canada...
(MSRC-FRSC) - 2006 Foreign member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and ArtsSerbian Academy of Sciences and ArtsThe Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts is the most prominent academic institution in Serbia today...
- 2004 Special recognition to distinguished Belgian scholars from the World Cultural Council
- 2003 Associate member of the Royal Astronomical Society, Londres
- 2003 Membre titulaire de l’Académie Nationale de l’Air et de l’Espace de Toulouse
- 2002 Member of the l'Académie royale des sciences, des lettres et des beaux-arts de Belgique
- 2001 European Latsis PrizeEuropean Latsis PrizeThe European Latsis Prize is awarded annually by the European Science Foundation for "outstanding and innovative contributions in a selected field of European research". The prize is worth 100,000 Swiss francs and is awarded within a different discipline each year...
in 2001. - 2000 Membre associé étranger de l'Académie des Sciences de Paris (France)
- 1999 Fellow of AGU
- 1995 The Prix quinquennal A. De Leeuw-Damry-Bourlart of the Belgian National Funds for Scientific Research for 1991-1995.
- 1994 Norbert Gerbier-Mumm International Award from the World Meteorological OrganizationWorld Meteorological OrganizationThe World Meteorological Organization is an intergovernmental organization with a membership of 189 Member States and Territories. It originated from the International Meteorological Organization , which was founded in 1873...
(1994). - 1994 Milutin Milankovitch Medal from the European Geophysical Society (1994).
- 1989 Member of Academia Europaea
- 1989 Golden Award of the European Geophysical Society (EGS)
- 1987 Honorary member of the European Geophysical Society (EGS)
- 1987 Foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen
- 1984 Prix Charles Lagrange de la Classe des Sciences of the Académie Royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique (20e période quadriennale 1980-1984)
- 1980 Prize of the first biennal 1979-80 of the Societa Italiana di Fisica
- He is Officier de la Légion d'honneurLégion d'honneurThe Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...
(see citation) (2010), Grand officier de l'Ordre de la CouronneOrder of the Crown (Belgium)The Order of the Crown is an Order of Belgium which was created on 15 October 1897 by King Leopold II in his capacity as ruler of the Congo Free State. The order was first intended to recognize heroic deeds and distinguished service achieved from service in the Congo Free State - many of which acts...
(see citation) (2007) , and Officier de l'Ordre de Léopold (1989) - He is part of the stamp sheet "This is Belgium 2007" with eight other Belgian scientists (see citation) and of the Gallery of Geniuses of the Coimbra Group Universities at the University of Jena. In 2008 he was among the 35 greatest Belgian scientists selected by the Belgian Universities and Eos Science. (see citation)
- He received the Silver Medal of His Holiness Pope Paul VIPope Paul VIPaul VI , born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding Pope John XXIII, who had convened the Second Vatican Council, he decided to continue it...
in 1979. - He has been made Chevalier (Belgian Knight) by His Majesty Albert II , King of the Belgians in 1996. Motto is Lux Scientia et Labore.