IRVINE : UCI Professor Wins International Award

One of UC Irvine’s preeminent professors has received an international award recognizing his work to improve the living standards of the world’s population, university officials said.

F. Sherwood Rowland, founding chairman of UCI’s chemistry department, was presented with the 1994 Albert Einstein World Award of Science from the World Cultural Council on Monday, UCI spokeswoman Cynthia Morris said. The prize, consisting of a medal and a cash award of $10,000, was given to Rowland at an international conference in Chambery, France.

Rowland lectured at the conference about his well-known work in linking man-made chlorofluorocarbon gases--which were frequently used as aerosol propellants--with ozone layer depletion, Morris said. Along with a fellow researcher, Rowland discovered the gases’ role in creating the ozone hole in 1973.

An atmospheric chemist, Rowland is currently foreign secretary of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, Morris said. He accepted an early retirement offer from the University of California system in June, but recently signed a five-year contract to return to UCI in October to teach and conduct research part time.