Nobel Prize-winner and UCI professor F. Sherwood Rowland raised awareness on the issues of climate change and the decomposition of the ozone Tuesday in University Student Union.
Rowland, who won the Nobel Prize in 1995, lectured on stratospheric ozone depletion in an understandable way for the listeners.
The College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics Student Council invited Rowland to speak on climate issues. Dean Laura Kingsford introduced Rowland to dozens of students, faculty and members of CNMS Student Council.
During his discussion, Rowland emphasized how scientific evidence for global warming is caused by the emission of man-made greenhouse gases. He also explained further about what we can expect in the coming decades.
Thuong Do, a senior biology major, expressed how important this issue is because L.A. is an urban area that is populated with large communities that consume resources and introduce waste into the environment.
“This will hopefully increase awareness to environment concerns that will affect future generations,” Do said.
“[Rowland] was the pioneer realizing the effect of [chlorofluorocarbons] and the effects on the ozone layer,” said associate professor William Murray from the mathematics and statistics department. “It was interesting to hear from him the story of ozone layer destruction.”
“He took a technical subject but explained in such a way that a layman could understand,” Murray said of Rowland’s lecture.
Other lecturers at the event included professor Mario Molina of the MIT and professor Paul Crutzne of the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry.
Rowland received other awards, including the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, the Japan Prize, the Peter Debye Award and the Roger Revelle Medal. He was also the former president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
