F. Sherwood Rowland dies at 84; UC Irvine professor won Nobel Prize

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By Shari Roan, Los Angeles Times
March 12, 2012
F. Sherwood Rowland, the UC Irvine chemistry professor who warned the world that man-made chemicals could erode the ozone layer, has died. He was 84.

Rowland, known as Sherry, died Saturday at his home in Corona del Mar of complications from Parkinson's disease, the university announced.

In 1995, Rowland was one of three people awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work explaining how chlorofluorocarbons, ubiquitous substances once used in an array of products from spray deodorant to industrial solvents, could destroy the ozone layer, the protective atmospheric blanket that screens out many of the sun's harmful ultraviolet rays.

The prize was awarded more than two decades after Rowland warned of the problem, and challenges to his theory plagued him for many years before he won widespread recognition for his work and leaders of nations worldwide began to act to ban or reduce usage of the chemicals.

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http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-sherwood-rowland-20120312,0,1170560.story

[eppur_se_muova]

1. K&R. A great scientist, and a great man.

It might be hyperbole to say he helped save the world, but not by much.