Mario Molina: A socially commited scientist

Abstract

This article discusses the career of one of the most important scientists of the 20th century, Dr. Mario Molina. Originally from Mexico, after obtaining his degree there, he continued his higher education in California, joining a working group on atmospheric chemistry, where he participated in a transcendental investigation: how products with excellent properties (including the absence of toxicity) and used in residential, commercial and industrial applications, could be destroyers of stratospheric ozone if they reached the upper layers of the atmosphere. This discovery led him to receive the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, but his merit was extended by his social involvement so that the prohibition of responsible products was possible. Also noteworthy is his return to Mexico to work for the improvement of his country. This professional profile that shuns isolation and chooses to give a social objective to his knowledge so that it is reverted to an improvement of the population (especially the most disadvantaged), is extremely necessary today to address important environmental challenges.