All 1995 Nobel Prize laureates on stage for the Nobel Prize award ceremony. From left: physics laureates Martin L. Perl and Frederick Reines; chemistry laureates Paul J. Crutzen, Mario J. Molina and F. Sherwood Rowland; medicine laureates Edward B. Lewis, Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard and Eric F. Wieschaus; literature laureate Seamus Heaney and laureate in economic sciences Robert E. Lucas Jr.

Photo from the Lars Åström archive

Mario J. Molina delivering his Nobel Prize lecture 'Polar Ozone Depletionon' 8 December 1995.

Nobel Foundation. Photo: Lars Åström

When Mario Molina was 11 years old his parents sent him to the Institut auf dem Rosenberg boarding school in St. Gallen, Switzerland. There he developed his interest in chemistry and mathematics. Many years later, Molina was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his research on the atmosphere’s ozone layer. His Nobel Diploma bears an image of an umbrella; a symbol for the way the ozone layer protects us from harmful ultraviolet radiation. When Molina later visited his old boarding school, he received exactly that—an umbrella. For Molina, the umbrella symbolises both his old school and the fragile ozone layer.

Photo: The Nobel Prize Museum

Mario J. Molina, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry 1995.

© University of California, San Diego Photo: Donna Coveney/MIT

Six Nobel Laureates in a panel discussion at the 2013 Nobel Week Dialogue, Exploring The Future of Energy, on 9 December 2013. From left: 1997 Physics Laureate Steven Chu, 2004 Physics Laureate David Gross, 2000 Chemistry Laureate Alan Heeger, 1988 Chemistry Laureate Hartmut Michel, 1995 Chemistry Laureate Mario Molina and 1984 Physics Laureate Carlo Rubbia. Copyright © Nobel Media AB 2013
Photo: Alexander Mahmoud

Sherwood Rowland and Mario Molina at work, January 1975.

University of California, Irvine