Susan Solomon named 2026 Tang Prize laureate

Susan Solomon, the Lee and Geraldine Professor of Environmental Studies at MIT, won the 2026 Tang Prize in Sustainable Development for her work in atmospheric and climate sciences.

The Tang Prize Foundation cited Solomon for "groundbreaking advances and leadership in atmospheric and climate sciences that shaped global policy for Sustainable Development." The biennial award, granted by judges convened by Academia Sinica, recognizes achievements in sustainable development, biopharmaceutical science, sinology, and rule of law.

"The Tang Prize is one of the most prestigious awards in environmental science, and it's flooring to anyone to learn that they received it," Solomon says. She holds joint appointments in MIT's departments of Chemistry and Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS).

The ozone hole

Solomon began her career at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In 1985, scientists discovered an unexpected hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica. Ozone, a gas made of three oxygen atoms, filters ultraviolet radiation from the sun that would otherwise damage living organisms, increasing rates of skin cancer and cataracts.

In 1986, Solomon, then 30, published a paper proposing a chemical mechanism that might explain the hole. She led a team of 16 scientists to take direct measurements of ozone degradation. She was the only woman in the expedition.

Their findings were the first measurements to show that chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), compounds found in aerosols and cooling systems, were destroying ozone in the stratosphere.

"Maybe it's just being young and naive, or maybe it's being open to new ideas, but at that stage in my life I was open to the idea that chemistry might be completely different from what we had thought," Solomon says. "I came up with some ideas of how to explain it that turned out to be right, remarkably."

The Montreal Protocol

The following year, a United Nations conference signed the Montreal Protocol, with all nations agreeing to phase out CFCs. The agreement stands as one of the most successful examples of international climate policy.

"The ozone story is a fantastic one, because it teaches us that we can actually develop international agreements and get all different kinds of countries, developed and developing, to agree to them and to solve problems together," Solomon says.

Climate science leadership

From 2002 to 2008, Solomon co-led the production of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report, synthesizing climate science knowledge and assessing effects and mitigation approaches to human-caused climate change. The report was later recognized with a Nobel Peace Prize.

Solomon then studied the impacts of human-made carbon dioxide emissions on Earth's climate. Her research showed that human emissions of CO2 cause impacts that would be irreversible for 1,000 years, even after emissions stopped.

In 2012, she joined the EAPS faculty, where she continued her work on the ozone layer. Recently, she found the first quantitative proof that the ozone layer is on track to recover by around 2035.

"Most of the awards I've gotten previously have been very focused on the science that I did, but this one embraces the fact that my work has benefit for the planet's sustainability," Solomon says. "People recognize that my work did something valuable. That is an incredible, humbling, and remarkable feeling."

Colleagues respond

"Susan is a model of an engaged scientist," says David McGee, the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at MIT and EAPS department head. "From uncovering the mechanisms by which human activities affect the ozone layer to using that understanding to guide political action to, most recently, showing that our actions have produced measurable ozone recovery, her work and leadership have deeply impacted the field and the health of our society."

"Susan is a pioneer of atmospheric chemistry," says Class of 1942 Professor of Chemistry and Department Head Matthew D. Shoulders. "Her groundbreaking research at the intersection of chemistry and environmental science is critically important, and it is wonderful to see her dedication, creativity, and scientific leadership recognized in this way."

Solomon credits collaborators Qiang Fu, Rolando Garcia, Douglas Kinnison, Ben Santer, David Thompson, MIT research scientists Kane Stone and Diane Ivy, and former students including Megan Lickley and Peidong Wang.

About the Tang Prize

The Tang Prize Foundation, founded in 2012 by the late Samuel Yin, is a nongovernmental, nonprofit educational foundation. Nomination and selection of laureates is conducted by Academia Sinica. Each award cycle, the academy convenes four autonomous selection committees, each consisting of international experts, until a consensus is reached. Recipients are chosen on the basis of the originality of their work and their contributions to society, irrespective of nationality, ethnicity, gender, and political affiliation.

Recipients in each Tang Prize category receive approximately $1.6 million and a grant of approximately $320,000.

Solomon is the second MIT faculty member to receive the award after Feng Zhang, who won in Biopharmaceutical Science in 2016 for his role in developing the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing system.