Local : UCI Professor Hailed for Award

UC Irvine chemistry Prof. F. Sherwood Rowland was toasted by Chancellor Jack Peltason and colleagues today for winning the prestigious Japan Prize, awarded each year for scientific and technological contributions to world peace.

“The whole world is cheering him,” Peltason said in a toast to Rowland, who was honored today by the Science and Technology Foundation of Japan for his documentation of the destruction of the Earth’s protective ozone layer. “He just didn’t do the work in the laboratory, but he realized the consequences of his discovery and at great personal risk . . . spread the word to Congress and around the world.”

Rowland said extent of damage to the ozone from chlorofluorocarbons won’t be known until the end of the century. The ozone is a protective band of gas that shields animals and plants from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays.

“Solutions are being sought by many world governments and the United Nations and changes are now being made,” said, Rowland, 62, who attended the reception with his wife, Joanne. “The direction in which things are looking is a (worldwide) ban within 15 years . . . and a replacement for chlorofluorocarbons.”

Earlier story, Part I, Page 1.