Mario José Molína shared the 1995 Nobel Prize for Chemistry with F. Sherwood Rowland and Paul Crutzen for research on the decomposition of the ozonosphere, the layer of the atmosphere that shields the Earth from dangerous solar radiation.  His recent research, being conducted with scientists from several other countries and colleagues in Mexico City, has focused on the chemistry of air pollution in the lower atmosphere in hopes of finding ways to assess and mitigate air pollution in rapidly growing cities around the world. 

Dr. Molína received his B.S. in chemical engineering from the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City, an advanced degree from the University of Freiburg (1967) in West Germany, and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley (1972).  Subsequently, he worked at Berkeley, the University of California, Irvine, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology.  In 1989, he joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as Institute Professor in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences.  In 2004, he joined the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego, and the Center for Atmospheric Sciences at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. 

Dr. Molína served on the President's Committee of Advisors in Science and Technology, Secretary of Energy's Advisory Board, National Research Council Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology, and on the boards of the U.S.-Mexico Foundation of Science and other nonprofit environmental organizations.  He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, and the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.