F. Sherwood Rowland (1927-2012)

Abstract

Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) were a triumph of the chemical industry and a mere curiosity in atmospheric science when Sherwood (Sherry) Rowland, with his postdoc Mario Molina, recognized in 1973 that these seemingly inert gases posed a threat to Earth's ozone layer. The activism led to the 1978 ban by the US Environmental Protection Agency on CFC use in aerosol cans, and finally in 1990 to the complete phasing out of CFC production by the Montreal Protocol and its amendments.