Biography
Mario José Molina Pasquel y Henríquez, Mexican chemical engineer (Ciudad de Mexico 19 March 1943 – Ciudad de Mexico 07 October 2020)
Developed the CFC ozone depletion theory
With F. Sherwood Rowland. Stratospheric sink for chlorofluoromethanes: chlorine-atom catalysed destruction of ozone. Nature 249:810-2, 1974
Showed that chlorine-activation reactions take place very efficiently in the presence of ice under polar stratospheric conditions
Proposed and demonstrated that chlorine peroxide (produced by decomposition of CFCs) would act as an ongoing catalyst for the destruction of ozone in the polar stratosphere
With L.T. Molina. Production of chlorine oxide (Cl2O2) from the self-reaction of the chlorine oxide (ClO) radical. J. Phys. Chem. 91(2):433-6, 1987
With A.K. Bertram, T. Koop & T.L.Molina demonstrated ice nucleation by common water-soluble inorganic aerosol types (1999-2001)
With R. Zhang, I. Suh, J. Zhao, D. Zhang, E.C. Fortner, X.X. Tie & L.T. Molina. Atmospheric new particle formation enhanced by organic acids. Science 304(5676):1487-90, 2004
With F. Zhang, Y. Wang, J.F. Peng, L. Chen et al. An unexpected catalyst dominates formation and radiactive forcing of regional haze. Proceed. Nat. Acad. Sciences USA 117(8):3960-6, 2020
Developed novel optical and spectroscopic techniques
With S.T. Martin, D. Salcedo & L.T. Molina. Phase transformation of micron-sized H2SO4/H2O particles studied by infrared spectroscopy. J. Phys. Chem. B 101(27):5307-13, 1997
With T. Koop, H.P. Ng & L.T. Molina. A new optical technique to study aerosol phase transitions: the nucleation of ice from H2SO4 aerosols. J. Phys. Chem. A 102(45):8924-31, 1998
With S. Frey, L.T. Molina & L. Woste. Design and implementation of a compact Raman-LIDAR for ozone and aerosol measurements. Europ. Space Agency 1:151-4, 2004
Derived Arrhenius expressions that are widely used in stratospheric chemical modeling
With J.V. Seeley & J.T. Jayne. Kinetic studies of chlorine atom reactions using the turbulent flow tube technique. J. Phys. Chem. B 100(10):4019-25, 1996
With J.V. Seeley, R.F. Meads & M.J. Elrod. Temperature and pressure dependence of the rate constant for the HO+NO reaction. J. Phys. Chem. B 100(10):4026-31, 1996
HONOURS
Chemistry Nobel Prize (1995)
Asteroid 9680 Molina
His uncle, Claudio Alberto Molina Pasquel, Mexican parasitologist and tropical medicine expert (Veracruz 14 July 1905 – Ciudad de Mexico 18 November 1992)
Demonstrated that trench fever is transmitted by the body louse and caused by the bacterium Rickettsia quintana
With G. Varela & J.W. Vinson. Trench fever II. Propagation of Rickettsia quintana on cell-free medium from the blood of two patients. Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg. 18:708-12, 1969
With J.W. Vinson & G. Varela. Trench fever III. Induction of clinical disease in volunteers inoculated with Rickettsia quintana propagated on blood agar. Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg. 18:713-22, 1969
Developed a method for diagnosis of amebiasis
With J.F. Kessel, W.P. Lewis & J.A. Turner. Indirect hemagglutination and complement fixation tests in amebiais. Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg. 14:560, 1965