Nobel Prize winning ozone expert Sherwood Rowland dies

Professor Sherwood Rowland, the man who first suspected that the ozone layer was being depleted, has died at the age of 84. Rowland published his most famous paper in 1974, concerning the dangers of chloroflourocarbons (CFC’s).

His ideas took some time to catch on, with the chemical industry being very critical of the paper; his science was vindicated in 1985 however, with the discovery of the ozone layer ‘hole’ over Antarctica. This lead to the Montreal Protocol and the eventual decline in the use of CFC’s, often hailed as one of the most successful international agreements.

"Mario and I realised this was not just a scientific question, but a potentially grave environmental problem involving substantial depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer," Rowland once said. "Entire biological systems, including humans, would be at danger from ultraviolet rays."

His research was pivotal in creating the scientific grounding for the agreement, and he must be considered partly responsible for the stabilisation of the ozone depletion over the southern hemisphere. Over the long term the hole is now expected to recover, although it may take several decades.

Rowland won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1995 along with two other scientists, for his work on the subject.

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