the story behind the nobel peace prize on display at chevron heritage center

From left: John Fiedor, Chevron archivist; Arthur Lee, Chevron Fellow and Maura Matthews, Chevron senior archivist, with the 2007 Noble Peace Prize.

On October 12, 2007, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Al Gore for his efforts to obtain and disseminate information about the climate challenge.

Ask Arthur Lee, a Chevron Fellow, and he’ll tell you that it was a day like any other—save for morning traffic being a bit lighter. After arriving at his office that Friday, Lee checked his email to find dozens of unread messages with nondescript subject lines.

He opened one from the co-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group III, with whom he had researched man-made climate change, to learn that their work had been jointly awarded that year’s prestigious accolade.

“I was stunned,” Lee said.

“When I was a kid growing up in New York City and going to a science and math focused high school, I always admired and respected Nobel Prize winners,” Lee said. “The Peace Prize is a little different in that it's given in recognition to individuals and organizations who promote global peace and harmony. It's the kind of recognition I would never have dreamed of.”

The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded jointly to the IPCC and Al Gore, the former U.S. vice president, not only for their research on man-made climate change but for their exploration “to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change.”

Fifteen years later, Lee felt the time was right to donate the award to the Chevron Heritage Center.

“Why not donate it?” Lee said. “Those were the early days and a number of Chevron people supported or contributed to work on climate change and energy transition which we are heavily focused on today.”

Outside of the company, he also received quite a bit of support from his family.

“My wife deserves tremendous credit for setting me on this path,” Lee said. “Jackie’s career advice affected me tremendously—I was thinking like an environmental engineer, and she convinced me to think more like an accountant and a financial auditor.”

“Our past was built with the efforts of a small number of people, all of us passionate about the work, contributing to the building blocks Chevron has today,” Lee said. “Our future will be even brighter.”

During Lee’s 30 years as an advisor and Fellow, Chevron’s commitment to a lower carbon future has grown significantly.

“We have the whole enterprise engaged,” he said. “We have leaders who inspire us to do more, as one team.