Mario Molina (Mexican Chemist) Biography

Mario Molinas, an American chemist of Mexican descent, was born in Mexico City on March 19, 1943, and passed away there on October 7, 2020. He shared the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with fellow chemists F. Sherwood Rowland and Paul Crutzen for their studies conducted in the 1970s on the breakdown of the ozonosphere, which protects Earth from solar radiation that can be harmful. The widespread usage of chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) gases was restricted globally in the late 20th century as a result of Molina and Rowland’s findings that some chemicals produced industrially weaken the ozone layer.

Maria Molins Biography

Born	Mario José Molina Henríquez
Mario Molina Date	19 March 1943
Place	Mexico City, Mexico
Mario Molina Death	7 October 2020 (aged 77)
Mario Molina Education	National Autonomous University of Mexico (BS) University of Freiburg (MS) University of California, Berkeley (PhD)
Mario Molina Spouse	Luisa Tan (m. 1973; div. 2005) Guadalupe Alvarez (m. 2006)
Scientific career	–
Fields	Chemistry
Institutions	See list
Thesis	Vibrational Populations Through Chemical Laser Studies: Theoretical and Experimental Extensions of the Equal-gain Technique (1972)
Doctoral advisor	George C. Pimentel
Doctoral students	Renyi Zhang

Mario Molina Early Life and Education

On the 19^th of March in 1943, Mario Molina was born to parents Leonor Henríquez de Molina and Roberto Molina Pasquel. His father was a lawyer as well as a diplomat who served in countries such as Ethiopia, Australia, and also the Philippines. Mario showed an interest in science at a very early age making his chemistry lab in their home by turning the bathroom into his laboratory and experiment area. He was fascinated by his toy microscope and through this, he first viewed amoeba and paramecia. For hours daily, Mario would play with his chemistry set in the seldom-used bathroom in their house. Esther Molina, one of his aunts, helped foster his interest by aiding him with his more challenging chemical experiments.

It had been a tradition in their family to study abroad for a time, and so Mario Molina with his love for chemistry, went to study at the Institut auf dem Rosenberg in Switzerland at the tender age of eleven years, after having completed his basic primary school education in Mexico.

During his school years in Europe however, Mario was disappointed that his classmates had little interest in chemistry. Because he had already made up his mind to be a chemist, on his return to Mexico, Mario Molina took his bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México or the National Autonomous University of Mexico in 1965.

When he finished his undergraduate studies Molina went on to pursue his Ph.D. in physical chemistry. He had a challenging time because although his degree had given him training, Molina felt he needed a fuller, more rounded scientific education. He attended the University of Freiburg in Germany and obtained an advanced degree in 1967 studying the kinetics of polymerizations. Continuing his studies after a year as working as an associate professor at his alma mater, Molina received his doctoral degree from the University of California in 1972.

At the University of California at Berkeley, Molina was part of the research group led by Professor George C. Pimentel who was a pioneer in developing matrix isolation techniques. Their goal was to study the molecular dynamics with the use of chemical lasers. For his graduate work, Mario investigated the internal energy distribution in the products of photochemical and chemical reactions.

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Mario Molina Career

After he completed his doctorate Mario remained for another year in Berkeley where he continued his research concerning chemical dynamics. He then joined Professor F. Sherwood Rowland’s group as one of the postdoctoral fellows and moved to Irvine, California. It was Professor Rowland who inspired Molina to research the effect on the environment of the industrial chemicals, chlorofluorocarbon gases (CFCs), which were accumulating in the earth’s atmosphere. With that project, Molina learned about a new field in chemistry; atmospheric chemistry.

Chlorofluorocarbons were used as propellants in spray cans and refrigeration units. They are highly stable compounds and were first developed in the 1930s as a non-flammable alternative to dangerous substances like ammonia. They are hydrocarbons that contain only carbon, chlorine, and fluorine.

Molina and Rowland devised the CFC ozone depletion theory together. Molina knew that as the CFCs drift up to higher altitudes, they are destroyed. What held Molina’s interest was what the consequences of these accumulated compounds would be. The scientists realized that as ultraviolet radiation decomposes the CFCs, chlorine atoms are produced which deplete the ozone layer. They found that a single chlorine atom can destroy around 100,000 ozone molecules before becoming inactive. Because of their findings, they were alarmed at how CFCs in the atmosphere would continue to deplete the ozone layer.

Their findings concerning their ozone depletion theory were published on June 1974 in “Nature”. They also made efforts to inform policymakers, so that laws to protect the earth’s ozone layer through regulation of CFC use could be considered.

A year later, Molina was appointed as one of the faculty members of the University of California, Irvine. While he still had collaborations with Rowland, he also began working on his research. Molina established his program for the investigation of spectroscopic and chemical properties of different compounds that have an important role in the atmosphere. The compounds he focused on included hypochlorous acid, chlorine nitrate, and chlorine nitrate.

While Molina had enjoyed his years in Irvine, it limited his time for doing experiments and after seven years with this academic position, he decided to join the Molecular Physics and Chemistry Section at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory 1982 in Pasadena, California. He was part of a small group and had the time and resources to conduct experiments of his own, especially those concerning new atmospheric problems.

In 2004 Molina joined the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego, and the Center for Atmospheric Sciences at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

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Born: March 19, 1943 in Mexico City, Mexico

Nationality: Mexican

Famous For: researched threat to the Earth’s ozone layer of chlorofluorocarbon gases

Mario Molina Awards: Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement (1983), NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal (1989), Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1995)

Mario Molina Family Members

Parents

• Hugo Molina
  Married to
• Beatriz Rodriguez

 Siblings

•  Mario Molina
•  Marcelo Molina
•  Edmundo Molina
•  Carlos Molina
•  Vicente Molina
•  Zoila Molina
•  Amparo Molina
•  Fausto Molina
•  Silvia Molina

| Paternal Grandparents, Uncles, and Aunts | |——————————————| | Grandfather | Federico Molina | | Grandmother | Zoila Elina Lopez | | Father | Hugo Molina | | Mother | Teresa Molina | | Uncles | Gustavo Molina | | | Enrique Molina | | Aunts | Elina Molina | | | (Names of their 9 children) | | Maternal Grandparents, Uncles, and Aunts | |——————————————| | Grandfather | Julio Cesar Rodriguez | | Grandmother | Eloisa Lopez | | Father | | | Mother | Beatriz Rodriguez | | Uncles | | | Aunts | Elsa Rodriguez | | | Rosa Rodriguez | | (Names of their children) |

Mario Molina Research and Achievements

• Early Career Move: In 1973, Molina relocated to Irvine, California, where he joined Professor Sherwood Rowland and his research group as a postdoctoral research fellow.
• Focus on CFCs: Molina initiated his research on Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), a group of inert chemicals extensively used as refrigerants and chemical propellants during that period.
• Environmental Concerns: Despite the prevalent belief in their harmlessness, Molina aimed to investigate the potential environmental impact of CFCs due to their accumulation in the atmosphere.
• Breakthrough Discovery: Collaborating with Sherwood, Molina found that CFCs were ascending into the upper atmosphere, where they underwent degradation by solar radiation, releasing chlorine that was depleting the ozone layer.
• Theory Development: Within three months of Molina’s involvement in the research, the duo formulated the CFC ozone depletion theory, highlighting the hazardous consequences of CFCs on the ozone layer.
• Publication Impact: Molina and Sherwood’s findings gained widespread attention after they published a paper in the June 1974 issue of Nature, alerting the scientific community to the imminent threat posed by CFCs.
• Awareness Campaign: Recognizing the urgency of the situation, Molina and his team endeavored to raise awareness among scientists, governments, and the media regarding the detrimental effects of CFCs on the ozone layer.
• Challenges and Resistance: Convincing stakeholders about the severity of the issue proved challenging, particularly due to the widespread usage of CFCs at the time. However, even commercial manufacturers eventually acknowledged the problem and initiated efforts to curtail CFC usage.
• Antarctic Ozone Hole Discovery: Subsequent research efforts led to the identification of the Antarctic ozone hole, further underscoring the critical need for immediate action to address ozone layer depletion.
• Nobel Prize Recognition: Molina’s groundbreaking contributions to atmospheric chemistry, alongside Sherwood Rowland and Paul Crutzen, culminated in the prestigious Nobel Prize in Chemistry in recognition of their efforts to combat ozone layer depletion.
• Legacy and Impact: Molina’s research not only revolutionized our understanding of the ozone layer but also catalyzed global efforts to phase out harmful substances like CFCs, showcasing the profound impact of scientific research on environmental conservation.

Mario Molina Quotes

1. “Finding out for myself, for the first time, how something works is an enormous driving force.”

– Mario Molina

2. “Climate change, like depletion of the ozone layer,
is proof of the damage human activities exert on earth at the global level.
Solutions require the commitment of all sectors of society.
Mitigation strategies and adaptation measures need the collaboration
of the scientific community, economists, technology and energy experts, entrepreneurs, decision-makers, and the general population.”

– Mario Molina

3. “Many Latino kids should become scientists because we need scientists all over the world from all different backgrounds. We have many tough problems, and we need everybody’s help to solve the problems.”

– Mario Molina

4. “The scientists I looked up to at the beginning were not Latino. They were famous scientists of many years ago, like Madame Curie. Later, I realized that there were also, but a very few, Latino scientists. There were good ones, but very few, because there wasn’t as much a tradition to be a scientist in our culture. But this is changing.”

– Mario Molina

5. “The basic science is very well established; it is well understood that global warming is due to greenhouse gases. What is uncertain is projections about specifics in the next few decades, by how much will the climate change.”

– Mario Molina

6. “Climate change and ozone depletion are two global issues that are different
but have many connections. In the ozone depletion case, we managed to work with decision makers effectively so that an international agreement called the Montreal Protocol was achieved that essentially solved the ozone depletion problem.”

– Mario Molina

7. “I made a decision it was not enough to just do the science but to also try to do something about directly applying scientific research to societal problems”

– Mario Molina

8. “..the planet is just too small
for these developing countries to repeat the economic growth
in the same way that the rich countries have done it in the past.
We don’t have enough natural resources,
We don’t have enough atmosphere.
Something has to change.”

– Mario Molina

9. “I am an optimist. I am positive. It’s possible to make the necessary changes, but it’s not going to be easy. It will take a lot of hard work. I have a lot of trust in the children now, in young people. I think they are paying more and more attention to the problems of our planet”

– Mario Molina, Scholastic

10. “The first education to be a good chemist is to do well in high school science courses. Then, you go to college to become a chemist. You want to take science and math. Those are the main things.”

– Mario Molina

I hope these ideas and resources were helpful to you! If you have more ideas for resources or lessons, let me know in the comments below!

Mario Molina Honorary degrees

Molina received more than thirty honorary degrees.

• Yale University (1997)
• Tufts University (2003)
• Duke University (2009)
• Harvard University (2012)
• Mexican Federal Universities: National of Mexico (1996), Metropolitana (2004), Chapingo (2007), National Polytechnic (2009)
• Mexican State Universities: Hidalgo (2002), State of Mexico (2006), Michoacan (2009), Guadalajara (2010), San Luis Potosí (2011)
• U.S. Universities: Miami (2001), Florida International (2002), Southern Florida (2005), Claremont Graduate (announced 2013)
• U.S. Colleges: Connecticut (1998), Trinity (2001), Washington (2011), Whittier (2012), Williams (2015)
• Canadian Universities: Calgary (1997), Waterloo (2002), British Columbia (2011)
• European Universities: East Anglia (1996), Alfonso X (2009), Complutense of Madrid (2012), Free of Brussels (2010),

Jacques Marie Mage Molino

Limited Production Batch of 400 Pieces

Named after Carlo Mollino, one of the great architects and designers of the 20th century, the Molino’s decisive rectangular shape emulates the acclaimed Italian’s flair for poetic angularity, while the spectacle’s solid construction and subtle bevel detailing reflects his astute mix of sensuality and balance.

• BROWN 10MM CURED CELLULOSE ACETATE FRAME WITH CUSTOM DOUBLE LAMINATE ACETATE TEMPLES AND BLUE LENSES
• SILVER ARROWHEAD FRONT PIN
• EXPOSED SILVER WIRE CORE WITH CUSTOM HAIRLINE ENGRAVING 
• SILVER TENSION-SECURED CUSTOM 7-BARREL HINGE 
• MARINE CR39 LENS 
• 6 BASE LENS WITH BACKSIDE ANTI-REFLECTIVE TREATMENT 
• FRAME SHAPE: RECTANGULAR 
• 100% UV PROTECTION
• SIZE: WIDE
• TEMPLE LENGTH: 144MM
• FRAME TOTAL WIDTH: 144MM
• LENS WIDTH: 51MM
• LENS HEIGHT: 37MM
• BRIDGE: 19MM

In Conclusion

Mario Molina’s life and talents serve as a perfect example of the enormous influence one person can have on society. Molina was born in Mexico City in 1943, and his remarkable path from a little child who loved science to a Nobel winner and well-known environmental campaigner is very amazing.

With his ground-breaking studies, Molina changed our knowledge of atmospheric chemistry and sparked international efforts to combat the ozone depletion catastrophe. He was especially crucial in determining the danger that chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) posed to the ozone layer. In addition to winning him the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, his work acted as a spur for global initiatives like the Montreal Protocol, which has effectively phased out the usage of compounds that deplete the ozone layer.

Beyond his scientific achievements, Molina’s dedication to environmental stewardship and science diplomacy has left an indelible mark on the world. He tirelessly advocated for policies to combat climate change and protect the planet for future generations, emphasizing the critical role of science in informing decision-making.

Mario Molina’s legacy is evidence of the effectiveness of scientific investigation, tenacity, and activism in resolving some of the most important issues confronting humanity. Upon contemplating his life, may we be motivated to carry on his legacy through knowledge-seeking, sustainability-promoting, and cooperative efforts to protect our world for future generations.