Two UC Irvine scientists, whose work was overlooked for years by the scientific establishment, won the highest honor in their fields -- the Nobel Prize -- in physics and chemistry.
Professor F. Sherwood (Sherry) Rowland, 68, won the prize in chemistry along with his colleague Mario Molina, the first Mexican-born researcher to win a science Nobel Prize, for discovering in 1974 that chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) used in aerosol sprays cans were depleting the earth's protective ozone layer. Molina now is at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The two men will share the $1 million prize with Paul Crutzen, 62, a Dutch scientist working in Germany.
Professor emeritus Frederick Reines, 77, won the physics prize for his 1956 discovery of the neutrino, an elusive subatomic particle that has changed theories about the nature of the universe. He will share the $1 million prize with Stanford University physicist Martin L. Perl, who was recognized for finding a super-heavy electron. the Nobel committee cited the two for discovering "two of nature's most remarkable subatomic particles."
The two prizes, both announced on Oct. 11, will be presented on Dec. 10 in Stockholm, Sweden. They bring to 31 the number of Nobels UC faculty have won over the university's 127-year history. Among faculty currently on UC's faculty, there now are 18 Nobelists.
Irvine Chancellor Laurel Wilkening said, "This is the best day in UCI's history since our opening day in 1965."
Reines and Rowland are the first Nobel laureates at the Irvine campus. Both were praised for their persistence and patience in their pursuit of pioneering ideas that at one time were unpopular or even disparaged. In reaction to their prizes, Wilkening told reporters, "It's about time and I'm glad they did it on the same day."
In telegrams sent to each of the two scientists, UC President Richard C. Atkinson said, "There's no higher honor that can be bestowed on an individual for their pioneering research and you richly deserve this honor for the discipline, insight and creativity that you have brought to your work in the laboratory and with your students."
Reines, who is hospitalized, was not available for comment. He already had won numerous scientific awards including the National Medal of Science in 1983. In addition to his scientific achievements, Reines is known as a Renaissance man, who recites poetry, was once a member of the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra and plays the bongos. Colleagues said Reines conducted "heroic experiments" that others thought were impossible. There was no question of whether he would win the Nobel, but rather a question of when he would win, a fellow professor said.
When told he had won a Nobel, Reines said, "It's great. It's wonderful," according to his wife Sylvia.
At a news conference following the Nobel announcement, Rowland, the founding chair of Irvine's chemistry department, thanked those who had supported him and his research during the lonely years in the 1970s and early 1980s when his warnings about CFCs were ignored or disputed. Rowland spoke out to the media, the United Nations and Congress about the dangers of CFCs. Eventually, the work of Rowland and Molina led to a ban on the use of chlorofluorocarbons in aerosol cans in the United States and several other countries.
Looking to his wife Joan, Rowland said, "Let me say . . . it helps very much to have people believe in what you're doing."