Mario J. Molina

Professor Mario J. Molina was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1995 jointly with Paul J. Crutzen and F. Sherwood Rowland for their work in atmospheric chemistry, particularly concerning the formation and decomposition of ozone.

Professor Molina was born in Mexico City, Mexico, in 1943.  He holds a Chemical Engineer degree (1965) from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, a postgraduate degree (1967) from the University of Freiburg, Germany, and a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry (1972) from the University of California, Berkeley.

He is a Professor at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), with a joint appointment in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.  Prior to joining UCSD he was an Institute Professor at MIT, and he held teaching and research positions at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, the University of California, Irvine and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology.

Professor Molina has been involved in developing our scientific understanding of the chemistry of the stratospheric ozone layer and its susceptibility to human-made perturbations.  He was a co-author, with F. S. Rowland, of the 1974 publication in the British magazine Nature, of their research on the threat to the ozone layer from chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) gases that were being used as propellants in spray cans, as refrigerants, as solvents, etc.  More recently, Professor Molina has also been involved with the chemistry of air pollution of the lower atmosphere, and with science-policy issues related to the climate change problem.

Professor Molina serves on the President’s Committee of Advisors in Science and Technology (1994-2000; 2010-present), and on several other advisory boards and panels.  He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and of the Mexican Academy of Sciences.

He has received more than twenty honorary degrees, as well as numerous awards for his scientific work including the Tyler Ecology and Energy Prize in 1983, the UNEP-Sasakawa Award in 1999, and the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.