Mario Jose Molina, awarded the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work in atmospheric chemistry concerning the formation and decomposition of ozone, was born in Mexico City on March 19, 1943. He graduated from the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico in 1965 with a degree in chemical engineering. Shortly thereafter he went to the University of Freiburg in West Germany where he obtained an M.S. degree in polymerization kinetics in 1967. He returned to Mexico City to take a position as an assistant professor at his alma mater in the chemical engineering department. The following year, he went to the University of California, Berkeley and earned a Ph.D. in physical chemistry in 1972.

Molina began his collaboration with F. Sherwood Rowland of the University of California, Irvine in 1973 as a postdoctoral fellow. They started to investigate the discovery that the global atmospheric concentrations of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) were approximately the same as would be predicted if all industrial gaseous emissions were still present in the atmosphere. They found that CFCs persist in the stratosphere for long periods of time and that, from a small fraction of them, chlorine could be split out by the interaction of the CFCs with ultraviolet light from the sun. This, in turn, caused a chain reaction in which ozone molecules are destroyed, but active chlorine-containing species are regenerated to begin the cycle again.

Among his professional accomplishments, Mario Molina was a research associate at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California from 1982 through 1989. He then accepted a joint position at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the chemistry department as professor of chemistry and as professor of atmospheric chemistry in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences. At MIT he became the first person to hold a chair "to support research and education activities related to the studies of the environment" that was established in 1993 by the Martin Foundation. In 1990 he was awarded a grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts Scholars Program in Conservation and the Environment.

Awarding the Nobel Prize, the Royal Swedish Academy noted that Molina and Rowlands, along with Dr. Crutzen who carried out related studies, "have contributed to our salvation from a global environmental problem that could have catastrophic consequences." It was the first time the Swedish Academy awarded a Nobel Prize for research into the impact of man-made objects on the environment. The discoveries have led to an international environmental treaty that bans the production of industrial chemicals that threaten the ozone layer.

In 1994, Molina was selected by President Clinton to serve on the 18-member President's Committee of Advisers on Science and Technology.

1. Mario Molina Wins Nobel Prize in Chemistry
2. Nobel e-Museum: Autobiography of Mario Molina

1. Stevens, W. K. 3 Win Nobel Prize for Work on Threat to Ozone. New York Times; October 12, 1995, p A1.