Sherwood Rowland

Frank Sherwood Rowland (June 28, 1927 – March 10, 2012) was an American atmospheric chemist and Nobel Prize laureate who made groundbreaking discoveries about ozone depletion. Born in Delaware, Ohio, Rowland earned his Ph.D. in chemistry and became a professor at the University of California, Irvine. In the 1970s, Rowland and his colleague Mario Molina conducted research demonstrating that chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), commonly used as refrigerants and aerosol propellants, were damaging the Earth's ozone layer. Their work provided scientific evidence that CFCs released into the atmosphere were broken down by ultraviolet radiation in the stratosphere, releasing chlorine atoms that catalytically destroyed ozone molecules. This research alarmed the scientific community and the public, as ozone depletion threatened to increase ultraviolet radiation reaching Earth's surface, causing skin cancer, cataracts, and immune system damage. Rowland's advocacy for policy changes contributed significantly to the 1987 Montreal Protocol, an international treaty phasing out CFC production and use—considered one of the most successful environmental agreements in history. In 1995, Rowland, Molina, and Paul Crutzen received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for this work. His research exemplified how scientific discovery can drive environmental protection and policy change.