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Mario Molina is a Nobel Prize winning chemist, whose work played a pivotal role in discovering the Antartic Ozone hole. He is the first Mexican born citizen to be awarded the Nobel Prize.
Molina earned a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in 1965. In 1967 he earned his postgraduate degree in polymerization kinetics at the Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg, West Germany, and in 1972 a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley,
In 1973, along with with colleague, F. Sherwood Rowland, Molina discovered the effects that CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) have on the earth's ozone layer. Despite being repeatedly disputed by commercial manufacturers, over the decades that followed, Molina and Rowland continued to voice their concerns over the manufacture and use of CFCs and the environmental harm of ozone depletion. Their efforts eventually earned them the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Molina has continued his research on pollutants and their effects on the earth's atmosphere. In 2013, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama.
