New Delhi: Google celebrates the 80th birthday of Dr Mario Molina, a Mexican chemist, with its new doodle on March 19. Before this Google celebrated the 120th birth anniversary of PK Rosy, a Malayalam actress.
Dr Mario Molina was born on March 19, 1943, in Mexico City. As a child, he was so enthusiastic about science that he converted his bathroom into a makeshift laboratory. Nothing beats the thrill of watching tiny organisms glide across his toy microscope.
Dr Molina was the co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1995, he was credited for convincing the government to work on Ozone layers and explaining how chemicals deplete Earth’s ozone shield.
Dr wrote in Nobel’s site biography, “I was already fascinated by science before entering high school. I still remember my excitement when I first glanced at paramecia and amoebae through a rather primitive toy microscope.”
He went to the National Autonomous University of Mexico for his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering and then he went to the University of Freiburg in Germany for his advanced degree. After his studies, he moved to the United States for his Phd at the University of California, Berkeley and finally at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
President Barack Obama awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Dr Molina in 2013, the highest civilian honour in the United States.
On October 7, 2020, Dr Molina died of a heart attack at the age of 77. The Mario Molina Center, a leading research institute in Mexico, continues its work to create a more sustainable world.
