Why is Mario Molina famous? Google Doodle celebrates late chemist’s 80th birthday

Google marked the 80th birth anniversary of Mexican Nobel Laureate Mario Molina by sharing a doodle. In the Google Doodle, 'Google' was written creatively by including O3 and the sun for the double Os in the word. Other than this, the depleting ozone layer was also featured, and there were doodles of spray cans and refrigerators as well.

A portion of the earth could also be seen in the doodle, where industries and residential complexes could be seen, and that depicts the impact of it on the earth.

Google Doodle of Dr. Molina (Image via snip from Google)

Nobel laureate Dr. Mario Molina was one of the researchers who discovered the effects of chlorofluorocarbon gases on the ozone layer. He also came up with initiatives to save the ozone layer and convinced various governments to band together and work to do the same. His work earned him the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1995.

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Dr. Mario Molina was the first Mexican-born scientist to receive a Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Dr. Mario Molina is well known for his contributions to science. He is famous for playing a pivotal role in the discovery of the Antarctic ozone hole,

Dr. Molina was the first Mexican-born scientist to receive the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and the third Mexican-born person to receive a Nobel prize. He had an interest in science since his childhood. In his Nobel biography, he shared an anecdote and said that he was so interested in science that when he was just a child, he turned his bathroom into a science laboratory so that he could do research on microorganisms with the help of his toy microscope.

"I was already interested in science before I started high school. I still remember my excitement when I first looked at paramecia and amoebae through a rather primitive toy microscope."

It is also to be noted that Mario Molina made a number of discoveries about the impact that climate change has on the planet. He also shed light on the impact of chlorofluorocarbon gas on the earth's ozone layer. He was one of the researchers who found a hole in the ozone layer.

Dr. Molina began his research into chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) in the early 1970s. He was one of the first scientists to discover the effects of CFC on the ozone layer, which caused ultraviolet radiation to reach the earth's surface. His research earned him the Nobel and led to the Montreal Protocol, an international treaty that successfully banned the production of almost 100 ozone-depleting chemicals.

He won several awards, including the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement and the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal, among others. It is worth noting that in 2013, he was a recipient of the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom.

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Dr Mario Molina discovered the threat of CFCs at University of California, Irvine

Dr. Molina earned his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in 1965, and later received an advanced degree from the University of Freiburg in 1967 in West Germany.

Mario Molina began his his Ph.D. in physical chemistry at the University of California at Berkeley in 1968. Following that, in 1973, he joined a research program at UC Berkeley with Sherwood Rowland, who would later become the co-author on their paper highlighting the threat of CFCs.

On the work front, Dr. Molina worked at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena from 1982 to 1989 and became a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.

Dr. Mario passed away on October 7, 2020, after suffering from heart failure. He died at the age of 77. Even after he passed away, the Mario Molina Center, which is a research institute in Mexico, made sure to carry forward his work so that the world could become more sustainable.