Mario José Molina-Pasquel Henríquez (19 March 1943 – 7 October 2020) was a Mexican physical chemist. He played a pivotal role in the discovery of the Antarctic ozone hole, and was a co-recipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his role in discovering the threat to the Earth's ozone layer from chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) gases. He was the first Mexican-born scientist to receive a Nobel Prize in Chemistry and the third Mexican-born person to receive a Nobel prize. In his career, Molina held research and teaching positions at University of California, Irvine, California Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of California, San Diego, and the Center for Atmospheric Sciences at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Molina was also Director of the Mario Molina Center for Energy and Environment in Mexico City. Molina was a climate policy advisor to the President of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto.
Early life Molina was born in Mexico City to Roberto Molina Pasquel and Leonor Henríquez. His father was a lawyer and diplomat who served as an ambassador to Ethiopia, Australia and the Philippines. His mother was a family manager. With considerably different interests than his parents, Mario Molina went on to make one of the biggest discoveries in environmental science. Mario Molina attended both elementary and primary school in Mexico. However, before even attending high school, Mario Molina had developed a deep interest in chemistry. As a child he converted a bathroom in his home into his own little laboratory, using toy microscopes and chemistry sets. Ester Molina, Mario's aunt, and an already established chemist, nurtured his interests and aided him in completing more complex chemistry experiments. At this time, Mario knew he wanted to pursue a career in chemistry, and at the age of 11, he was sent to a boarding school in Switzerland at Institut auf dem Rosenberg, where he learnt to speak German. Before this, Mario had initially wanted to become a professional violinist, but his love for chemistry triumphed over that interest. At first Mario was disappointed when he arrived at the boarding school in Switzerland due to the fact that most of his classmates did not have the same interest in science as he did. Molina's early career consisted of research at various academic institutions. Molina went on to earn his bachelor's degree in chemical engineering at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in 1965. Following this, Molina studied polymerization kinetics at the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg, West Germany, for two years. Finally, he was accepted for graduate study at the University of California, Berkeley. After earning his doctorate he made his way to UC Irvine. He then returned to Mexico where he kickstarted the first chemical engineering program at his alma mater. This was only the beginning of his chemistry endeavors.
Career
Mario Molina began his studies at the University of California at Berkeley in 1968, where he would obtain his PhD in physical chemistry. Throughout his years at Berkeley, he participated in various research projects such as the study of molecular dynamics using chemical lasers and investigation of the distribution of internal energy in the products of chemical and photochemical reactions. Throughout this journey is where he worked with his professor and mentor George C. Pimentel who grew his love for chemistry even further. After completing his PhD in physical chemistry, in 1973, he enrolled in a research program at the University of California, Irvine, with Sherwood Rowland. The topic of interest was Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). The two would later on make one of the largest discoveries in atmospheric chemistry. They were the first to recognize that CFCs could destroy Earth's protective ozone layer. They developed their theory of ozone depletion, which later influenced the mass public to reduce their use of CFCs. This kickstarted his career as a widely known chemist. Between 1974 and 2004, Molina variously held research and teaching posts at University of California, Irvine, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Caltech, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he held a joint appointment in the Department of Earth Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences and the Department of Chemistry. On 1 July 2004, Molina joined the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at University of California, San Diego, and the Center for Atmospheric Sciences at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. In addition he established a non-profit organization, which opened the Mario Molina Center for Strategic Studies in Energy and the Environment (Spanish: Centro Mario Molina para Estudios Estratégicos sobre Energía y Medio Ambiente) in Mexico City in 2005. Molina served as its director. Molina served on the board of trustees for Science Service, now known as Society for Science & the Public, from 2000 to 2005. He also served on the board of directors of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (2004–2014), and as a member of the MacArthur Foundation's Institutional Policy Committee and its Committee on Global Security and Sustainability. Molina was nominated to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences as of 24 July 2000. He served as a co-chair of the Vatican workshop and co-author of the report Well Under 2 Degrees Celsius: Fast Action Policies to Protect People and the Planet from Extreme Climate Change (2017) with Veerabhadran Ramanathan and Durwood Zaelke. The report proposed 12 scalable and practical solutions which are part of a three-lever cooling strategy to mitigate climate change. Molina was named by US president Barack Obama to form a transition team on environmental issues in 2008. Under President Obama, he was a member of the United States President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Molina sat on the board of directors for Xyleco. He contributed to the content of the papal encyclical Laudato Si'. In 2020, Mario Molina contributed to research regarding the importance of wearing face masks amid the SARS-COV-2 pandemic. The research article titled "Identifying airborne transmission as the dominant route for the spread of COVID-19" was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Journal in collaboration with Renyi Zhang, Yixin Li, Annie L. Zhang and Yuan Wang.
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