Rudolph Marcus

Born on 21 July 1923 in Montreal, Rudolph Marcus is a Nobel Prize–winning chemist whose contributions to the theory of electron-transfer reactions has helped elucidate research into such diverse phenomena as photosynthesis, electrically conducting polymers, and chemiluminescence. Marcus studied chemistry at McGill University, where he earned his BSc in 1943 and PhD in 1946. He then did postdoctoral research at both the National Research Council of Canada and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It was in the 1950s that Marcus delved into electron-transfer reactions and established what is now known as the Marcus theory to explain the rates at which electrons can jump from one chemical species to another. In 1951 he accepted a faculty appointment at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, in 1964 he joined the faculty of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, and in 1978 he became the Arthur Amos Noyes Professor of Chemistry at Caltech. Marcus has also made significant contributions in several other areas of chemistry. For his work, Marcus has received numerous honors and awards, including the Wolf Prize in Chemistry in 1985, the National Medal of Science in 1989, and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1992. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1970 and to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1973. (Photo credit: AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Physics Today Collection)

Date in History: 21 July 1923