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