Rowland, Frank Sherwood, 1927–2012, American chemist, b. Delaware, Ohio, Ph.D. Univ. of Chicago, 1952. Rowland taught at Princeton from 1952 to 1956 and at the Univ. of Kansas from 1956 to 1964, when be became a professor at the Univ. of California, Irvine. Rowland was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry jointly with Paul Crutzen and Mario Molina in 1995 for their work in atmospheric chemistry, particularly concerning the formation and decomposition of ozone. In 1974, Rowland and Molina published a seminal paper in Nature describing the threat to the ozone layer posed by chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) gases, which were used in aerosol cans, refrigerants, and plastic foams. Their work gave rise to international restrictions on CFC use.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Chemistry: Biographies
