Nobel Prize-winning chemist Mario José Molina was born in Mexico City in March 19, 1943. 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 returned to Mexico to accept a position as assistant professor in the chemical engineering department at his alma mater before furthering his studies at the University of California at Berkeley. He received his Ph.D. in 1972 and became a postdoctoral associate that same year. The following year, 1973, was a turning point in Molina's life. He married fellow chemist Luisa Y. Tan and left Berkeley to continue his postdoctoral work with physical chemist Professor F. Sherwood Rowland, at the University of California at Irvine.

Molina...