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Irvine, Calif., May 28, 2004 -- F. Sherwood Rowland, a Nobel laureate in chemistry and Donald Bren Research Professor in chemistry and Earth system science at UC Irvine, was elected today to foreign membership in the United Kingdom's Royal Society.
Founded in 1660, the Royal Society is dedicated to promoting excellence in science. It is the world's oldest scientific academy in continuous existence and an independent scientific academy of the United Kingdom. The fellowship of the Royal Society comprises more than 1,200 of the most distinguished scientists from the United Kingdom, other Commonwealth countries and the Republic of Ireland.
"Sherry is one of UCI's most distinguished scientists and a world-class chemist who altered the way we study the Earth's atmosphere," said Ronald Stern, dean of the School of Physical Sciences, which is home to the departments of chemistry and Earth system science. "In naming him to foreign membership, the Royal Society has recognized the many important contributions he has made to the future well-being of our planet. Our congratulations to him."
New fellows and foreign members to the society will be formally inducted and honored during a ceremony at the Royal Society in London July 14-16. This year, 44 new fellows were elected. The Royal Society also has 125 foreign members. Each year, up to six foreign members -- eminent for their scientific discoveries and attainments -- are elected through a peer review process culminating in a vote by existing fellows.
"The Royal Society has almost 350 years of history involving most of the greatest scientists of all time, and I feel deeply honored to be elected to this distinction," Rowland said. "My wife, Joan, and I are looking forward to attending the admission celebration in London in mid-July."
Rowland was awarded the 1995 Nobel Prize in chemistry with two other scientists for their work in atmospheric chemistry that illustrated how the ozone layer forms and decomposes -- research that led to the movement to ban chlorofluorocarbons from aerosol cans. His other major honors include the Szilard Award from the American Physical Society (1979); the Tyler World Prize in Environmental Achievement (1983); the Japan Prize in Environmental Science and Technology (1989); the Peter Debye Award in Physical Chemistry from the American Chemical Society (1993), and the Roger Revelle Medal from the American Geophysical Union (1994).
He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, for which he also has served as foreign secretary (1994-2002), and is the former president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine, the American Physical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.
Fellows and foreign members of the Royal Society are elected for life. Previous fellows include Isaac Newton, Christopher Wren, Charles Darwin, Ernest Rutherford and Dorothy Hodgkin. Current fellows include Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Francis Crick, Richard Dawkins, Stephen Hawking, Harry Kroto, Tim Berners Lee, Paul Nurse, John Sulston and Maurice Wilkins.
Dr. Ricardo Miledi, Distinguished Professor of Neurobiology and Behavior at UCI, is also a fellow of the Royal Society.
Foreign members of the society include Julius Axelrod, David Baltimore, Paul Berg, Har Gobind Khorana, Donald Knuth, Walter Munk, Steven Weinberg and Edward O. Wilson.
Currently, the society's fellows and foreign members include more than 65 Nobel Prize winners.
About the University of California, Irvine: The University of California, Irvine is a top-ranked public university dedicated to research, scholarship and community. Founded in 1965, UCI is among the fastest-growing University of California campuses, with approximately 24,000 undergraduate and graduate students and about 1,300 faculty members. The third-largest employer in dynamic Orange County, UCI contributes an annual economic impact of $3 billion.
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