Re: Nobel Prizes for Radiation Science

[fegallag@uci.edu (Frank E. Gallagher, III)]

Actually, it gets even better for UC Irvine and the use of radioactive
materials/radiation-producing machines in research.

Dave Scherer wrote:

>I guess this year UC Irvine wins the Triple Crown.  They have some
>affilitation with winners in all three natural science categories.  Fred
>Reines (physics) and Sherwood Rowlands (chemistry) are faculty members
>there, and Eric Weischaus (physiology or medicine) did a post doc there
>before his prize winning work in Germany.

How about Quadruple Crown.  Mario Molina of MIT, who shares the Nobel Prize
with Sherwood Rowland, was a former colleague of Professor Rowland here at
UCI.   

>BTW, there is a radiation connection in two of the areas.  The physics award
>was for particle physics work conducted at Savannah River and at SLAC
>(again).  The physiology or medicine warad was for work on mutations in
>Drosophilla (of radiation biology fame).  I believe that Weischaus (now at
>Princeton) uses a Cs-137 irradiator to induce mutations.  The chemistry
>award was for study of reactions in the ozone layer.

Three of the areas.  Professor Rowland used neutron activation analysis for
many of his measurements of atmospheric gases during his distinguished
career at UCI and has served as Reactor Administrator of our 250 kW TRIGA
reactor for many years.

When I was a very junior health physicist at Caltech in the late 60's, E.B.
Lewis (who also won the Nobel Prize earlier this week for genetics
research), was Chair of the Radiation Safety Committee.  He also used
radiation (probably x-rays) to produce mutations in Drosophilla. 


Frank E. Gallagher, III, CHP
RSO, Univ. of California, Irvine   92717-2725
Voice: (714) 824-6904, Fax: (714) 824-8539
E-mail: fegallag@uci.edu