Mario Molina is an important figure in the development of a scientific understanding of our atmosphere . Molina earned national prominence by theorizing, with fellow chemist F. Sherwood Rowland, that chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) deplete the Earth's ozone layer. In his years as a researcher at the Jet Propulsion Lab at CalTech and a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Molina has continued his investigations into the effects of chemicals on the atmosphere.

Mario José Molina was born in Mexico City on March 19, 1943. His father was Roberto Molina-Pasquel; his mother, Leonor Henriquez. Following his early schooling in Mexico, he graduated from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in 1965 with a degree in chemical engineering. Immediately upon graduation, Molina went to West Germany to continue his studies at the University of Freiburg, acquiring the equivalent of his master's degree in polymerization kinetics in 1967. Molina then...