Molina, Mario

Molina, Mario,

1943–, Mexican chemist, Ph.D. Univ. of California, Berkeley, 1972. Molina was a professor at the Univ. of California, Irvine from 1975 to 1982 and a researcher at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., from 1982 to 1989, when he then joined the faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 2005 Molina became a professor at the Univ. of California, San Diego. He shared the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Paul CrutzenCrutzen, Paul Jozef,
1933–, Dutch atmospheric chemist, grad. Univ. of Stockholm (Ph.D. 1968, D.Sc. 1973). After working (1977–80) for the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colo., and teaching (1976–81) at Colorado State Univ.
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 and Sherwood RowlandRowland, Frank Sherwood,
1927–2012, American chemist, b. Delaware, Ohio, Ph.D. Univ. of Chicago, 1952. Rowland taught at Princeton from 1952 to 1956 and at the Univ. of Kansas from 1956 to 1964, when be became a professor at the Univ. of California, Irvine.
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 for their work in atmospheric chemistry, particularly concerning the formation and decomposition of ozoneozone
, an allotropic form of the chemical element oxygen (see allotropy). Pure ozone is an unstable, faintly bluish gas with a characteristic fresh, penetrating odor. The gas has a density of 2.144 grams per liter at STP.
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. Molina and Rowland are credited with identifying the threat to the ozone layerozone layer
or ozonosphere,
region of the stratosphere containing relatively high concentrations of ozone, located at altitudes of 12–30 mi (19–48 km) above the earth's surface.
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 from chlorofluorocarbonchlorofluorocarbons
(CFCs), organic compounds that contain carbon, chlorine, and fluorine atoms. CFCs are highly effective refrigerants that were developed in response to the pressing need to eliminate toxic and flammable substances, such as sulfur dioxide and ammonia, in
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 (CFC) gases, which were used as propellants in aerosol cans and as coolants in refrigerators. Published in Nature in 1974, their findings led to a ban on the use of CFCs.