His findings over the years also has important implications in explaining why the ozone layer is being depleted, specifically, helping to explain the activities that happen on the surface of small crystals of ice in the stratosphere. The stratosphere is the layer of Earth's atmosphere where ozone depletion is often found.

The Nobelprize.org website (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2007/index.html) explains more about Ertl’s award of the Nobel Prize.

Ertl, who was born on October 10, 1936 in Stuttgart, Germany, is a professor emeritus, and a former head of the Department of Physical Chemistry (1986-2004), at the Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (Fritz Haber Institute at the Max Planck Institute), in Berlin, Germany.

The 2007 Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine and Physics were announced earlier.

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