New Fall Exhibit Highlights the Research Contributions of a UCI Nobel Laureate

The Libraries’ fall exhibit, A Discovery of a Lifetime: F. Sherwood Rowland and the Ozone layer highlights the research contributions of F. Sherwood Rowland, Donald Bren Research Professor of Chemistry in Earth System Science and 1995 Nobel Prize winner for Chemistry.  The exhibit profiles Professor Rowland’s work, along with postdoctoral colleague Mario Molina, as one of the first scientists to warn that chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) released into the atmosphere were depleting the earth’s critical ozone layer.  Mitchell Brown, Research Librarian for Chemistry, Earth System Science, and Russian Studies is the curator.  The opening night event will be held on November 18, 2011 at 6pm in the Langson Library and will feature a talk by Ralph J. Cicerone, President of the National Academy of Sciences and Chancellor Emeritus, UC Irvine. 

The exhibit examines the role of the scientist as communicator, a recurring theme in Professor Rowland’s career as a Nobel Chemistry Prize winning scientist, climate advocate, and mentor.   Objects describe the scientific and political debate of human contributions to the Earth’s climate, the science and politics of atmospheric chemistry, and the challenge of communicating science to non-scientists.

As the first Chair of the Chemistry Department, Professor Rowland helped to shape the newly formed campus as one of UC Irvine’s founding faculty members.  The exhibit highlights his personal papers, original manuscripts, research notebooks, photographs, videos of speeches and interviews, magazine articles about Dr. Rowland, posters, correspondence, and professional commendations and awards.