Kenneth Owen Buesseler | |
---|---|
Born | 1959 |
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | University of California, San Diego, Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Known for | Research on marine radiation effects, Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Radiochemistry, Marine science |
Institutions | Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution |
Kenneth "Ken" Owen Buesseler (born 1959) [1] is an American marine radiochemist. He is a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
Buesseler studied biochemistry and cell biology at the University of California, San Diego, where he obtained a BA in 1981. In 1986 he obtained his PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. [2]
Since 1983 he has spent the largest part of his career at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, where he became a senior scientist in 2000. [3] He is best known for his research on the marine radiation effects from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, where he went on a scientific expedition shortly after the disaster. [4] [5] He has measured specific caesium levels since. He has also monitored the effects on the coast of the western United States. [6] Buesseler has criticized the lack of a federal agency looking into the risks of marine radiation contamination in the United States. [7] Buesseler previously did research on the effects of nuclear weapons testing and the effects of the Chernobyl disaster on the Black Sea. [8]
Buesseler was elected a fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 2009. [9] He was elected a foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2013. [10] He was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2018. [11] Buesseler was cited by the Times Higher Education as the top cited oceanographer for the decade 2000 to 2010. [12]