On Feburary 4, 2015, Prof. Charles. H. Langmuir of Harvard University, U.S. was invited to host the 16th Tibetan Plateau Science Forum at ITP. His lecture attracted over 50 audiences, including ITP scienitific and administrative staff, as well as graduates.
Entitled “Earth and human, a planetary perspective”, his lecture focused on the evolution of the planetary earth, and the transition of the dominant air in the atmospheric circle on earth from carbon dioxide to nitrite and oxygen. According to him, human did not play an important role in the earth’s evolution until after the industrial revolution, when he named the anthropozoic. With human playing a growing role in the earth’s evolution, how to better adjust the human-earth relationship turned out to be a thought-provoking question confronting earth system scientists throughout the world.

Long engaged in the oceanic basalt study, Prof. Langmuir has made great achievement in the study of the oceanic basalt formation. He has published over 120 peer-reviewed papers, including 7 first-authored papers in Nature. He was nominated AGU fellow in 1993, member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1997 and member of United States National Academy of Sciences in 2006.