Mario Molina - The Hole in the Ozone
Mario Molina was born March 19, 1943, in Mexico City. His father was Roberto Molina Pasquel, a lawyer and university teacher, and his mother was Leonor Henriquez de Molina. He was encouraged in his early interest in science. He attended elementary and high school in Mexico City, except for a two-year stint at a boarding school in Switzerland.
In 1960, at age 17, Molina was accepted at the National University of Mexico. He majored in chemical engineering as a way to obtain the math classes he believed he would need as a physical chemist. Molina remained interested in broadening his understanding of new technologies and different areas of research throughout his career, always looking for the area where he could expand his knowledge. After graduation in 1965, he did two years of postgraduate studies at the University of Freiberg in Germany, and later in Paris. He returned to Mexico to begin a job as assistant professor at the National University of Mexico.
In 1968, Molina moved to Berkeley to pursue a Ph.D. in physical chemistry at the University of California at Berkeley. His research involved the distribution of energy as a result of chemical and photochemical reactions. Molina received his Ph.D. in 1972, and remained for one year of postdoctoral research in chemical dynamics.
In 1973, he accepted a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Irvine. He worked with Professor F. Sherwood Rowland, who was researching the chemical properties of atoms with excess energy as a result of radioactive processes. Molina decided to research the environmental impact on inert industrial chemicals found in the atmosphere, specifically chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).
The research outcome went beyond what happened to the CFCs; the breakdown of the CFCs by solar radiation released chlorine atoms that destroyed the ozone layer in the upper atmosphere. Molina and Sherwood shared their work with others working on atmospheric research, and they published their findings in Nature on June 28, 1974. Molina and Rowland energized an organized effort to broadcast the potentially catastrophic impact of continued use of CFCs. Their thesis was not well received by many in industry and government, but the research continued.
In 1975, Moline was named an assistant professor at University of California, Irvine. He continued to research compounds that impact the atmosphere. In 1982, he accepted a non-academic position at the Molecular Physics and Chemistry Section at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. With no teaching load, Molina concentrated on his research. He spent a great deal of time developing methods for studying and analyzing complex atmospheric conditions. When he learned that Joseph Farman had identified a seasonal depletion of the ozone over the south pole, Molina set up
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