Countywide : Legislature to Honor UCI Nobel Laureates
UC Irvine’s two 1995 Nobel laureates, F. Sherwood Rowland and Frederick Reines, will be honored by the state Legislature on Monday for their contributions to science.
Both the Senate and Assembly will read resolutions praising UCI’s first Nobel Prize-winning scientists. The pair personally accepted their Nobel awards in Stockholm in December.
Reines, 77, received the prestigious award in physics for tracking down an elusive subatomic particle called a neutrino, a discovery that changed theories about the nature of the universe. Rowland, 68, won the chemistry prize for discovering that chlorofluorocarbons were eating a hole in Earth’s protective ozone layer.
“Recognition for the high standing of the University of California and its faculty is long overdue,” said Assemblyman Brooks Firestone (R-Los Olivos), who chairs the Assembly Committee on Higher Education. “UCI’s remarkable attainment of two Nobel prizes in one year certainly deserves our attention and respect.”
Reines and UCI Chancellor Laurel L. Wilkening are expected to attend the readings, according to UCI officials.
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