For the first time in the 120-year history of the scientific world's most prestigious award, the Nobel Prize in physics was given to climate scientists. One of the laureates, Japanese-born American scientist Syukuro Manabe, was among the first to show that pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere would raise earth's surface temperature. SMU Associate Professor of Science, Technology and Society Winston Chow, who is also an United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) author, recalls having read Prof Manabe's 1967 paper while pursuing his PhD in geography at Arizona State University. "It was definitely ahead of its time," said Assoc Prof Chow of the paper that outlined the meteorologist's climate model. "(His work) laid a strong foundation of how (climate science) developed over the next 50 years, and enhanced our understanding of the causes of climate change," Assoc Prof Chow added.