Wallace Smith Broecker

Dear Fernette, Brock and all -- A friend just told me of a book he is reading by a dyslexic named Wallace Smith Broecker. In the preface he refers to his dyslexia and his dyslexic way of working. The book is The Great Ocean Conveyor: Discovering the Trigger for Abrupt Climate change. I have ordered the book and done a quick search. Looks like he is a major player in climate change and CO2. Coined the phase "global warming." Teaches at Columbia and received many, many awards. I plan to learn more for possible inclusion in book three. May even include in my Harvard-MIT talk November 20. See him on Wiki. Anyone aware of his dyslexia? Please let me know. -- Tom -- thomasgwest@gmail.com

Tags: dyslexic, scientist

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Comment by Drs. Fernette and Brock Eide on November 16, 2011 at 7:35am: Fascinating, Tom - had not heard of this before.

Did you see Broecker's interview here: http://www.aip.org/history/ohilist/6923_1.html

Doel:

Do you remember reading any books as you were growing up? Junior high or high school age?

Broecker:

Oh, I must have but I don’t remember. I remember my parents, way back, that we read together. I remember The Yearling and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and things like that. And I’m sure I read little mystery books like all kids do—The Hardy Boys and things like that. But I was not a reader. I was dyslexic and I still am and I imagine that may have—I didn’t know it at the time. All I knew is I could never read out loud. That was always a disaster because I’d miss too many words, make too many mistakes. And the more nervous you get the worse you are.

Doel:

The harder that becomes. When were you finally diagnosed with dyslexia?

Broecker:

I never was. I didn’t even know what it was until my kids had it. So then I realized that it was also a problem with me.

Doel:

Okay. So it took that long before you even consciously understood it?

Broecker:

That I realized that there was some real physical explanation for it. I never thought about it much. But it made it harder to read for pleasure because it was work.