Rudolph A. Marcus
Canadian-born American chemist and Nobel laureate (1923–2026)
Who was Rudolph A. Marcus?
Rudolph Arthur Marcus (July 21, 1923 – July 16, 2026) was a Canadian-born American chemist who received the 1992 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his contributions to the theory of electron transfer reactions in chemical systems". He was a professor at Caltech, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and a member of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science. Rudolph Arthur Marcus was born in Montreal, Quebec, on July 21, 1923, the son of Esther (born Cohen) and Myer Marcus. His father was born in New York and his mother was born in England. His family background is from Ukmergė (Lithuania). He was Jewish and grew up mostly in a Jewish neighbourhood in Montreal but also spent some of his childhood in Detroit, United States. He excelled at mathematics at Baron Byng High School.
He then studied at McGill University under Carl A. Winkler, who had studied under Cyril Hinshelwood at the University of Oxford.
Historical significance
Marcus theory, named after him, provides a thermodynamic and kinetic framework for describing one electron outer-sphere electron transfer. His interest in the sciences began at a young age.