Jump to Content

Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Rowland (F. Sherwood) papers
MS.F.029  
View entire collection guide What's This?
Search this collection
Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Access
  • Publication Rights
  • Preferred Citation
  • Acquisition Information
  • Existence and Location of Originals
  • Processing History
  • Processing Information
  • Biography
  • Historical Background
  • Collection Scope and Content Summary
  • Collection Arrangement
  • Appraisal Note

  • Contributing Institution: Special Collections and Archives, University of California, Irvine Libraries
    Title: F. Sherwood Rowland papers
    Creator: Rowland, F.S.
    Identifier/Call Number: MS.F.029
    Physical Description: 204.8 Linear Feet (340 boxes and 2 oversized folders)
    Date (inclusive): 1928-2012
    Date (bulk): 1980-2012
    Abstract: F. Sherwood Rowland was the Donald Bren Research Professor of Chemistry in Earth System Science at the University of California, Irvine, beginning at UCI as a founding faculty member in 1964 and continuing as a professor and researcher until 2012. This collection documents his professional career in radiochemistry and atmospheric science. Included are materials documenting his research; awards including the Nobel Prize in chemistry (1995); professional service; and his global efforts to educate the public and policymakers about stratospheric ozone depletion, global climate change, and related environmental issues. Materials document the public controversies surrounding the chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) theory of ozone depletion and efforts to negotiate international agreements, including the Montreal Protocol, to ban CFC production. Forms of materials include audiovisual recordings, speeches, manuscripts, correspondence, notes, reports and report drafts, publications, clippings, photographs, and digital material.
    Language of Material: English .

    Access

    The collection is open for research.

    Publication Rights

    Property rights reside with the University of California. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and their heirs. For permissions to reproduce or to publish, please contact the Head of Special Collections and Archives.

    Preferred Citation

    F. Sherwood Rowland papers. MS-F029. Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California. Date accessed.
    For the benefit of current and future researchers, please cite any additional information about sources consulted in this collection, including permanent URLs, item or folder descriptions, and box/folder locations.

    Acquisition Information

    Gift of F. Sherwood Rowland and Joan Rowland, 2008-2012.

    Existence and Location of Originals

    External media received, digital object numbers MSF029_DIG001-MSF029_DIG099

    Processing History

    Processed by Dawn Schmitz, Kimberly Gallon, Colleen Williams, and Christine Kim in 2010-2011. Funding for processing was generously provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and administered by the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). The UC Irvine Libraries Department of Special Collections and Archives was awarded a Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives grant from 2010-2012, "Uncovering California's Environmental Collections," in collaboration with eight additional special collections and archival repositories throughout the state and the California Digital Library (CDL). Grant objectives included processing of more than 33 hidden collections related to the state's environment and environmental history. The collections document an array of important sub-topics such as irrigation, mining, forestry, agriculture, industry, land use, activism, and research. Together they form a multifaceted picture of the natural world and the way it was probed, altered, exploited and protected in California over the twentieth century. Finding aids are made available through the Online Archive of California (OAC).
    The June 2012 acquisition was processed by Audra Eagle Yun, Alix Norton, and Deborah Lewis in 2012-2013.

    Processing Information

    In order to expedite access to the collection, it was minimally processed. See series-level notes for more information.

    Biography

    F. Sherwood Rowland was the Donald Bren Research Professor of Chemistry in Earth System Science at the University of California, Irvine, beginning at UCI as a founding faculty member in 1964 and continuing as a professor and researcher until 2012. In 1995, he shared the Nobel Prize in chemistry with Mario Molina and Paul Crutzen, "for their work on atmospheric chemistry, particularly concerning the formation and decomposition of ozone." Rowland, a specialist in atmospheric chemistry and radiochemistry, has authored or co-authored more than 430 scientific publications. He has been internationally recognized with numerous awards and honors, not only for his groundbreaking work in the laboratory, but also for his efforts to inform other scientists, the public, and policymakers about threats posed by chemical pollutants to earth's atmosphere.
    In 1974, Rowland was, with Molina (at the time a postdoctoral research associate at UC Irvine), the first to warn that chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) released into the atmosphere were depleting earth's critical ozone layer. Research on CFCs and stratospheric ozone eventually led in the 1970s to legislation in the United States, Canada, and Scandinavia regulating the manufacture and use of CFCs, and in 1987 to the Montreal Protocol of the United Nations Environment Programme, the first agreement for controlling and ameliorating environmental damage to the global atmosphere. The terms of the Montreal Protocol were strengthened in 1992 to attain a complete elimination of further CFC production by the year 1996. Measurements in the atmosphere have confirmed that CFC emissions on a global scale have essentially stopped.
    Rowland was born on June 28, 1927, in Delaware, Ohio, to parents Sidney A. Rowland, a mathematics professor at Ohio Wesleyan University, and Margaret Lois Rowland (née Drake). After graduating from high school in 1943 at the age of 16, he enrolled at Ohio Wesleyan. Two years later, when he was 18, he enlisted in a Navy program to train radar operators. He was in basic training when World War II ended, but he served in the military for two additional years before returning to Ohio Wesleyan, graduating in 1948. He then began graduate study in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Chicago, where he earned his master's and doctoral degrees under the direction of Willard Libby, 1960 winner of the Nobel Prize in chemistry. Throughout his college, military, and postgraduate years Rowland participated in competitive sports, excelling in both baseball and basketball; he spent two summers playing semi-professional baseball in Ontario.
    In 1952 Rowland finished his Ph.D. and accepted a position as instructor in the Department of Chemistry at Princeton University. That year he also married Joan Lundberg, and in 1953 they had a daughter, Ingrid, and in 1955, a son, Jeffrey. Summers from 1953 to 1955 were spent at Brookhaven National Laboratory, where Rowland's research focused on hot-atom chemistry. In 1956, he accepted an assistant professorship at the University of Kansas where he ran a laboratory conducting research in radiochemistry, rising through the ranks until his promotion to full professor in 1963. The following year he was recruited by the University of California Irvine, to serve as the first chair of the Department of Chemistry.
    In 1970 he retired from the chairmanship and began to shift the focus of his research toward atmospheric chemistry and environmental issues, the latter a reflection of cultural influences and the concerns of his own family. Eventually, he and postdoctoral research associate Molina began an investigation of the fate of CFCs in earth's atmosphere, and in 1974 they published their first research article on the subject. Their findings, that the release of CFCs into earth's atmosphere depletes the ozone layer, immediately drew widespread scholarly and media attention. Proposals for laws to limit the manufacture of CFCs, starting with a ban on CFCs as aerosol propellants in consumer products, drew steep resistance from chemical manufacturers who challenged the CFC theory of ozone depletion. For the next three decades, Rowland was at the center of the controversies surrounding not only CFCs and ozone depletion, but also global climate change, serving as a frequent spokesperson on these atmospheric environmental problems in both broadcast and print media. He continued to run the Rowland-Blake Laboratory at UC Irvine with his research partner, Donald Blake, until his death in 2012.
    Rowland's professional activities included serving as the foreign secretary of the National Academy of Sciences from July 1994 to June 2002. In 1995, he created, with Professor Prakesh Tandon of India, the InterAcademy Panel, a global network of the world's science academies, now representing more than 100 academies. He is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the Institute of Medicine. Beginning in 1991, Rowland served successive one-year terms as president-elect, president, and chairman of the board of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the publishers of Science Magazine.
    F. Sherwood Rowland passed away on March 10, 2012.

    Historical Background

    Chronology

    1927 Born June 28 in Delaware, Ohio
    1943 Graduates from high school before 16th birthday and enrolls in Ohio Wesleyan University in the fall
    1945 Enlists in training program for Navy radar operators
    1948 B.A., Ohio Wesleyan University
    1951 M.S., University of Chicago
    1952 Marries Joan Lundberg
      Ph.D., University of Chicago
    1952-1956 Instructor in Chemistry, Princeton University
    1953-1955 Visiting Scientist, Brookhaven National Laboratory (summers)
    1956-1963 Assistant, Associate, and Full Professor of Chemistry, University of Kansas
    1962 Visiting Scientist, Max Planck Institute, Mainz (January-June)
    1964-1970 Professor and Chairman of Chemistry, University of California, Irvine
    1964-1994 Professor of Chemistry, University of California, Irvine
    1969 Visiting Scientist, International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna (January-June)
    1973 Mario Molina joins Rowland's research team as a postdoctoral research associate
    1974 Visiting Scientist, International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna (January-June)
    1974 Publication of "Stratospheric sink for chlorofluorocarbons; chlorine atom catalyzed destruction of ozone," in Nature, co-authored with Mario Molina
    1975 Orange County Award, American Chemical Society
    1975 J. W. Jones Prize, Rochester Institute of Technology
    1976 Tolman Medal, American Chemical Society
    1977 Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
    1977 Billard Award, New York Academy of Sciences
    1978 Member, National Academy of Sciences
    1978 The use of chlorofluorocarbons as a propellant gas is banned in the U.S.
    1979 Szilard Award, American Physical Society
    1980 E. F. Smith Lectureship, American Chemical Society
    1980 Zimmerman Award, American Chemical Society
    1980 Visiting Scientist, Japan Society for Promotion of Science
    1981 Visiting Scientist, Technical University Munich (January-October)
    1981 Humboldt Fellow, Senior Scientist, Federal Republic of Germany (Munich)
    1983 Environmental Science and Technology Award, American Chemical Society
    1983 Tyler World Prize in Ecology and Energy and the Award for Creative Advances in Environmental Science and Technology of the American Chemical Society (with Mario Molina)
    1985 "Hole" in the ozone layer is reported by British scientists
    1985-1989 Daniel G. Aldrich, Jr., Professor of Chemistry, University of California Irvine
    1987 Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer adopted
    1987 Esselen Award, American Chemical Society
    1987 Charles A. Dana Award for Pioneering Achievements in Health
    1988 Global 500 Role of Honour for Environmental Achievement, United Nations Environment Programme
    1989 Montreal Protocol ratified by 29 countries and the EEC
    1989 UCI Medal
    1989 Silver Medal, Royal Institute of Chemistry, United Kingdom
    1989 Japan Prize in Environmental Science and Technology
    1989-1994 Donald Bren Professor of Chemistry and Earth System Science, UC Irvine
    1991 Dickson Prize, Carnegie-Mellon University
    1991-1993 Successive one-year terms as President-Elect, President, and Chairman of the Board of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
    1993 Robertson Memorial Lecture, National Academy of Sciences
    1993 Peter Debye Medal in Physical Chemistry, American Chemical Society
    1994 Member, Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences
    1994- Donald Bren Research Professor of Chemistry and Earth System Science, UC Irvine
    1994 Roger Revelle Medal, American Geophysical Union
    1994 Albert Einstein Prize, World Cultural Council
    1994-2002 Foreign Secretary, National Academy of Sciences
    1995 Member, American Philosophical Society
    1996 Honorary Lifetime Member, Ozone Commission, International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics (IAMAP)
    1997 Alumni Medal, University of Chicago
    1997 Nevada Medal
    1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry (with Mario Molina and Paul Crutzen)
    1995-2000 Founding Co-chair (with P. N. Tandon, India) Inter-Academy Panel (IAP) on International Issues
    2000 CoSIDA Academic All-America Hall of Fame
    2003 Gold Medal, Academy of Athens
    2004 Member, Academia Bibliotheca Alexandrina
    2004 Foreign Member, Royal Society (U.K.)
    2006 Chemical Breakthrough Award, American Chemical Society (with Mario Molina)
    2012 Died March 10 in Corona Del Mar, California

    Collection Scope and Content Summary

    This collection documents F. Sherwood Rowland's professional career in radiochemistry and atmospheric science. Included are materials documenting his research; awards including the Nobel Prize in chemistry (1995); professional service; and his global efforts to educate the public and policymakers about stratospheric ozone depletion, global climate change, and related environmental issues. Materials document the public controversies surrounding the CFC theory of ozone depletion and efforts to establish international agreements, including the Montreal Protocol, to ban CFC production. Also documented is Rowland's tenure as the foreign secretary of the National Academy of Sciences (1994-2002) and his role as co-founder of the InterAcademy Panel on International Issues, a global network of scientific academies. Leadership roles in other organizations, notably the American Association for the Advancement of Science, are also documented. A small amount of personal and family papers is also included.
    Forms of materials include more than 150 audio and video recordings, primarily of Rowland's broadcast appearances, lectures, and testimony before legislative bodies; lengthy recorded interviews that were never broadcast; manuscripts of published and unpublished writings and speeches; reports and report drafts; correspondence; clippings; notes; meeting and committee materials; photographs; award certificates, plaques, and honorary diplomas; ephemera including posters; digital items including research and lecture materials; and research materials for both scientific research on atmospheric science and background research on global environmental issues and policy.

    Collection Arrangement

    This collection is arranged in 16 series:
    • Series 1. Biographical materials, 1933-2005, 0.4 linear feet
    • Series 2. Personal and family papers, 1950-2009, 1.2 linear feet
    • Series 3. College and early professional papers, 1947-1967, 0.8 linear feet
    • Series 4. Correspondence, 1961-2008, 17.8 linear feet
    • Series 5. Scholarly writings, 1954-2009, 7.0 linear feet
    • Series 6. Research, 1934-2006, 33.67 linear feet
    • Series 7. Notes, 1968-2008, 2.0 linear feet
    • Series 8. Media and publicity materials, 1972-2007, 12.68 linear feet
    • Series 9. Professional activities, 1975-2009, 35.5 linear feet
    • Series 10. Speaking engagements and meetings, 1958-2009, 25.67 linear feet
    • Series 11. General subject files and collected literature, 1956-2007, 17.0 linear feet
    • Series 12. Awards and honors, 1974-2009, 5.25 linear feet
    • Series 13. University of California, Irvine files, 1964-2009, 4.27 linear feet
    • Series 14. Visual materials, 1964-2006, 11.06 linear feet
    • Series 15. Plaques and other artifacts, 1989-2008, 3.67 linear feet
    • Series 16. June 2012 acquisition, 1950-2012, 26.8 linear feet
    Unless otherwise noted in the series and subseries descriptions, the arrangement scheme for the collection was imposed during processing in the absence of a usable original order. Most materials were found loose and were filed during processing. Within folders, materials are generally in no order but related materials are sleeved together.

    Appraisal Note

    Separated materials include clippings/tear-outs that contained multiple articles and could not be filed by topic; issues of some publications including Extra! (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting), Columbia Journalism Review; and some publications of professional societies. Also not retained were tax records, financial records, travel expense reports and receipts, tourism materials, medical records, and opera ephemera including programs and ticket stubs.

    Subjects and Indexing Terms

    Nobel Prize winners -- Archives
    Ozone-depleting substances
    Ozone layer depletion
    Chemists
    Environmental policy
    Communication in science
    Physical scientists
    Video recordings -- 20th century.
    Global warming -- Research
    Video recordings -- 21st century
    University of California, Irvine -- Faculty -- Archives
    Uncovering California's Environmental Collections Project
    Rowland, F.S. -- Archives