Rudolph Arthur Marcus
Marcus, Rudolph Arthur (1923-), a Canadian-born American theoretical chemist, studied the ways in which electrons (negatively charged particles that make up the outer layers of atoms) are transferred between one atom and another in chemical reactions. Marcus earned the 1992 Nobel Prize in chemistry for this work.
Marcus was born on July 21, 1923, in Montreal, Canada. He studied at McGill University, earning his Ph.D. degree in 1946. He then did postdoctoral experimental work in photochemistry at the National Research Council of Canada in Ottawa. Photochemistry concerns reactions involving light, such as in photographic film or photosynthesis (plants making food from light).
In 1949, Marcus began working at the University of North Carolina (UNC) in Chapel Hill. He then began working in theoretical chemistry. He moved to the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn in New York City in 1951.
In the mid-1950's, a student in one of Marcus's classes brought to his attention a problem in electrolytes. This stimulated Marcus to study electrolytes, materials that break down in liquid solution to form ions (electrically charged atoms and molecules).
This began the work that won Marcus the Nobel Prize: clarifying the processes of the transfer of electrons between atoms in chemical processes. He related the speed of progress of reactions to the changes in structure of the molecules taking part. Marcus performed some experiments to add to the meager data available but, by 1960, he gradually stopped experimenting and concentrated instead on theory.
In 1964, Marcus joined the faculty of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His interests in electron transfer continued, and he explored many areas of chemistry. In 1978, Marcus became professor of chemistry at the California Institute of Technology.
Marcus became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1958.