Discoverer of Ozone Destruction Named as UCI Bren Fellow
F. Sherwood Rowland, the UC Irvine atmospheric chemist who discovered the depletion of the Earth’s ozone shield, was named the university’s second Bren Fellow on Wednesday.
The $1-million endowment, part of a $2.5-million gift from Irvine Co. Chairman Donald Bren, will finance new and continuing research into the composition of the atmosphere, Rowland said Wednesday. Rowland, a member of the National Academy of Scientists, joins UCI evolutionary biologist Franscisco Ayala, who was named to the first Bren chair in July.
“An endowment such as this allows you to explore new areas quickly, because you don’t have to go to the federal government to get the money to test a new idea,” Rowland said. “You don’t have to wait a year for a grant to come through; you can get right to work.”
Resulted in Ban
Rowland discovered in 1974 that substances used in aerosol sprays, air-conditioning systems and cleaning solvents were responsible for damaging the ozone layer, which he predicted would cause increased skin cancer rates and dramatic climactic change. His work to publicize the findings resulted in a 1978 Congressional ban on the use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in aerosol sprays and the 1987 Montreal Protocol, an international plan to regulate the compounds.
UCI Chancellor Jack W. Peltason, who announced the appointment, praised Rowland as a scientist whose work affects everyone on earth.
“Dr. Rowland is one of the most distinguished scientists in the nation,” Peltason said. “His work is crucial to everyone. More than just sounding the alarm of impending environmental catastrophe, he has championed the cause, often in the face of heated resistance and personal criticism.”
Rowland and Ayala will form the nucleus of an elite intellectual community at UCI, according to the chancellor. Ayala, who was head of the search committee that selected Rowland, also is director of the fellowship program.
The Bren Fellows Program was established in August, 1988, with a cash gift from Bren. An accompanying land-use agreement with the Irvine Co. permits UCI to develop a high-technology business park on campus, with lease revenues from the park earmarked for support and expansion of the fellows program.
‘Sense of Purpose’
Bren said Wednesday that he is impressed by Rowland’s work and his “sense of purpose.”
“I applaud the selection of Dr. Rowland as the second Bren Fellow, and I am optimistic that this will greatly encourage him as he continues his important inquiry into the nature of the Earth’s atmosphere,” Bren said. “One of the goals of the Bren Fellows is to enable UCI to retain its brightest academic minds. Dr. Rowland is among the most talented people at UCI, and I’m pleased that the university is able to offer this fellowship to him.”
The fellowship is the latest of dozens of awards bestowed on Rowland, who tenaciously publicized his findings even though he was derided as a crackpot and headline-seeker by CFC manufacturers and some academics.
His findings gained increasing acceptance over the years, and final vindication came last February, when Rowland was awarded the internationally prestigious Japan Prize. Rowland termed the prize, which carried a no-strings-attached cash award of nearly $400,000, “the ultimate” award in environmental science.
‘Greenhouse Effect’
Rowland said his current work continues to examine the depletion of the ozone, as well as the global warming phenomenon known as the “greenhouse effect.”
He and his research team took atmospheric samples from 200 locations throughout the Pacific Rim, Africa and Europe this month for analysis of CFCs, carbon dioxide and methane content. All three compounds contribute to ozone depletion and the greenhouse effect, he said.
In addition, the presence and quantity of methane and hydrocarbons in the lower atmosphere may shed light on “the ability of the atmosphere to keep cleaning itself,” Rowland said.
Rowland, who in June was awarded a UCI Medal, the university’s highest honor, also has received the Tyler Prize in Ecology and Energy, the Leo Szilard Award for Physics in the Public Interest, and the distinguished research award from the UC system’s Academic Senate and Academic Council.
Rowland currently holds UCI’s first endowed chair, the Daniel G. Aldrich Chair, named after the university’s founding chancellor. A search committee will recommend a new fellow for that chair, which was endowed with $250,000.
