IRVINE : Institute of Medicine Selects UCI Professor

One of UC Irvine’s most well-known scholars has been selected to an elite national health organization, a UCI spokeswoman said.

F. Sherwood Rowland, professor of chemistry, is one of five researchers across the nation honored this year by selection to the Institute of Medicine, based in Washington. Members are chosen for their contributions to health and medicine or related fields in the sciences, law, administration and economics, UCI spokeswoman Cynthia Morris said.

The Institute of Medicine was created in 1970s as a component of the National Academy of Sciences. Institute members, who are not paid, meet to discuss issues of national health policy.

Rowland was selected for his acclaimed work in atmospheric chemistry. In 1974, he and then-postdoctoral student Mario Molina first explored the danger that chlorofluorocarbon gases posed to the atmosphere. Their work led to a ban on certain aerosol propellants in the United States two years later.

Rowland also is foreign secretary of the National Academy of Sciences and keeps in touch with science academies in other countries. He also is chairman of the Office of International Affairs of the National Research Council.

He retired from the UCI faculty in June through the University of California’s early retirement program but recently signed a five-year contract to continue research and teaching, Morris said.