Mario Molina was born in Mexico City in 1943. His studies in physical chemistry brought him to the University of California in Berkeley where he also obtained his Ph.D. In 1974 he co-authored a paper that appeared in the renowned science Magazine “Nature”. The article, published well before the first measurements of the Antarctic ozone hole became available, described how chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) gases that were widely used in industry at the time destroy the atmospheric ozone layer which protects life on Earth from the sun’s harmful UV-radiation. In 1995, Molina was honoured with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on ozone depletion. As Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Earth, Atmosphere, and Planetary Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Molina continued his research on the various ways in which human society can affect the chemistry of the atmosphere. In 2004 he joined the faculty at the University of California in San Diego.