Mario Molina has not joined FLAPSS and has not endorsed it. This page is a reference record assembled from published interviews and public remarks. Every answer below is a direct quotation with the source and date shown next to it.
Atmospheric chemist; Nobel laureate in Chemistry, 1995
Mexico · 1943–2020
Atmospheric chemist who, with F. Sherwood Rowland, showed in 1974 that chlorofluorocarbons deplete stratospheric ozone. Shared the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Rowland and Paul Crutzen, becoming the first Mexican-born scientist to receive a Nobel in a scientific category. He later worked on urban air quality in Mexico City.
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I then converted a bathroom, seldom used by the family, into a laboratory and spent hours playing with chemistry sets. With the help of an aunt, Esther Molina, who was a chemist, I continued with more challenging experiments along the lines of those carried out by freshman chemistry students in college.
Recorded Laureate-written autobiography, provided by the laureate in November 2007, Nobel Prize Outreach, 1 November 2007 source
Although my years at Irvine were very productive, I missed not doing experiments myself because of the many responsibilities associated with a faculty position: teaching courses, supervising graduate students, meetings, etc. After spending seven years at Irvine as Assistant and then Associate Professor, I decided to move to a non-academic position. I joined the Molecular Physics and Chemistry Section at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1982. I had a smaller group – only a few postdoctoral fellows – but I also had the luxury of conducting experiments with my own hands, which I enjoyed very much.
Recorded Laureate-written autobiography, provided by the laureate in November 2007, Nobel Prize Outreach, 1 November 2007 source
Sherry offered me a list of research options: the one project that intrigued me the most consisted of finding out the environmental fate of certain very inert industrial chemicals – the chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) – which had been accumulating in the atmosphere and which at that time were thought to have no significant effects on the environment. This project offered me the opportunity to learn a new field – atmospheric chemistry – about which I knew very little; trying to solve a challenging problem appeared to be an excellent way to plunge into a new research area.
Recorded Laureate-written autobiography, provided by the laureate in November 2007, Nobel Prize Outreach, 1 November 2007 source
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