The Mario Molina Center, a leading research institute in Mexico, carries on his work to create a more sustainable world. Dr Molina is remembered for his critical scientific discoveries for which the planet’s ozone layer is on track to fully recover in the next few decades. This international alliance is considered one of the most impactful environmental treaties ever made - a precedent that shows governments can work together effectively to tackle climate change. The groundbreaking research became the foundation of the Montreal Protocol, an international treaty that successfully banned the production of nearly 100 ozone-depleting chemicals. He and his co-researchers published their findings in the Nature journal, which later won them the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He was one of the first to discover that chlorofluorocarbons (a chemical found in air conditioners, aerosol sprays, and more) were breaking down the ozone and causing ultraviolet radiation to reach Earth's surface. In the early 1970s, Dr Molina began researching how synthetic chemicals impact Earth’s atmosphere.

After completing his studies, he moved to the United States to conduct postdoctoral research at the University of California, Berkeley, and later at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr Molina went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and an advanced degree from the University of Freiburg in Germany. Nothing could compare to the joy of watching tiny organisms glide across his toy microscope. As a child, he was so passionate about science that he turned his bathroom into a makeshift laboratory.

Dr Molina was born on this day in 1943 in Mexico City.

Google remembered him as a co-recipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and one of the researchers who exposed how chemicals deplete Earth’s ozone shield, which is vital to protecting humans, plants, and wildlife from harmful ultraviolet light.

NEW DELHI: Google on Sunday celebrated the 80th birth anniversary of Dr Mario Molina, a Mexican chemist who pioneered the task of convincing governments to come together to save the planet’s ozone layer, through a doodle.

Google today doodle