Rudolph A. Marcus

Biosketch

Rudolph A. Marcus, John G. Kirkwood and Arthur A. Noyes Professor of Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology, was born in Montreal, Canada in 1923. After receiving a B.Sc. (1943) and Ph.D. (1946) from McGill University (experiments on chemical reaction rates in liquids), and post-doctoral research at the N.R.C. of Canada (experiments on chemical reaction rates in gases) and the University of North Carolina (reaction rate theory), he joined the faculty of the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (1951-64), the University of Illinois (1964-78), and Caltech (1978- ). His research includes the “Marcus theory” of electron transfer processes, the RRKM theory of unimolecular reactions, and more recent theories in fields that include anomalous isotope effects in stratospheric ozone, catalysis of “on water” organic reactions, single molecule behavior of biological motors, single molecule studies of molecular conductance. A trademark of his research has been a strong interaction between theory and experiment. Marcus received the Wolf Prize in Chemistry in 1985, the U.S. National Medal of Science in 1989, and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1992. And Rudolph A. Marcus, John G. Kirkwood and Arthur A. Noyes Professor of Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology, was born in Montreal, Canada in 1923. After receiving a B.Sc. (1943) and Ph.D. (1946) from McGill University (experiments on chemical reaction rates in liquids), and post-doctoral research at the N.R.C. of Canada (experiments on chemical reaction rates in gases) and the University of North Carolina (reaction rate theory), he joined the faculty of the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (1951-64), the University of Illinois (1964-78), and Caltech (1978- ).His research includes the “Marcus theory” of electron transfer processes, the RRKM theory of unimolecular reactions, and more recent theories in fields that include anomalous isotope effects in stratospheric ozone, catalysis of “on water” organic reactions, single molecule behavior of biological motors, single molecule studies of molecular conductance. A trademark of his research has been a strong interaction between theory and experiment. Marcus received the Wolf Prize in Chemistry in 1985, the U.S. National Medal of Science in 1989, and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1992. And Rudolph A. Marcus, John G. Kirkwood and Arthur A. Noyes Professor of Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology, was born in Montreal, Canada in 1923. After receiving a B.Sc. (1943) and Ph.D. (1946) from McGill University (experiments on chemical reaction rates in liquids), and post-doctoral research at the N.R.C. of Canada (experiments on chemical reaction rates in gases) and the University of North Carolina (reaction rate theory), he joined the faculty of the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (1951-64), the University of Illinois (1964-78), and Caltech (1978- ). His research includes the “Marcus theory” of electron transfer processes, the RRKM theory of unimolecular reactions, and more recent theories in fields that include anomalous isotope effects in stratospheric ozone, catalysis of ?on water? organic reactions, single molecule behavior of biological motors, single molecule studies of molecular conductance. A trademark of his research has been a strong interaction between theory and experiment. Marcus received the Wolf Prize in Chemistry in 1985, the U.S. National Medal of Science in 1989, and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1992.

Research Interests

My current research is in theoretical chemical physics 0f kinetics studies in several fields, including single molecule studies of mechanisms of biological motors, such as the rotary motor F1ATPase and the linear motor Myosin V, and how they convert chemical energy to mechanical energy and vice versa, rates of ultrafast electron transfer reactions, electrical conductance of single molecules and of assemblies of molecules , and terahertz conductivity of disordered materials. among others. In each case a goal is to obtain a simple theoretical expression to describe the phenomenon, and make predictions with those expressions that can be tested with laboratory experiments.