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Mark A. Ratner | |
|---|---|
 Ratner in 2009. | |
| Born | (1942-12-08)December 8, 1942 (age 83) |
| Known for | unimolecular rectifier |
| Awards | Irving Langmuir Award(2004) Willard Gibbs Award(2012) Peter Debye Award(2016) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | molecular electronics |
| Institutions | Northwestern University |
| Doctoral advisor | G. Ludwig Hofacker, Jan Linderberg |
Mark A. Ratner (born December 8, 1942) is an American chemist and professor emeritus atNorthwestern University whose work focuses on the interplay between molecular structure and molecular properties.[1] He is widely credited as the "father of molecular-scale electronics" thanks to his groundbreaking work with Arieh Aviram in 1974 that first envisioned how electronic circuit elements might be constructed from single molecules and how these circuits might behave.[2]
Ratner graduated fromHarvard University with an undergraduate degree in chemistry and obtained his Ph.D. in chemistry fromNorthwestern University.[3]
Ratner taught chemistry atNew York University from 1970 until 1974. In 1974, he and Arieh Aviram proposed the first unimolecular rectifier,[4] thus becoming pioneers inmolecular electronics.[5] During more than 45 years in the chemistry department atNorthwestern University, Ratner was the inaugural Lawrence B. Dumas Distinguished University Professor, the Charles E. and Emma H. Morrison Professor in Chemistry, associate and interim dean of the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, Co-director of ISEN (Institute for Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern), recipient of the Northwestern Alumni Merit Award, and an eleven-time member of the Faculty Teaching Honor Roll.[6][7][8][9]
Ratner's major areas of research include nonlinear optical response properties of molecules; electron transfer and molecular electronics; quantum dynamics and relaxation in condensed phase; mean-field models for extended systems, including proteins and molecular assemblies; photonics in nanoscale systems; excitons in molecule-based photovoltaics and hybrid classical/quantum representations.[1] He has published more than 1,000 papers in these fields[1][10][11] through international collaborations, particularly in Denmark, Israel and the Netherlands.[12]
Ratner is a member of theInternational Academy of Quantum Molecular Science, theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences, theRoyal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, and theNational Academy of Sciences.[13][14] His honors and awards include theFeynman Prize in Nanotechnology,[15] theIrving Langmuir Award in Chemical Physics,[16] theWillard J. Gibbs Award,[17] the Peter Debye Award in Physical Chemistry,[18] and honorary ScD degrees fromHebrew University of Jerusalem and theUniversity of Copenhagen. He also serves on the Governing Board for theBulletin of the Atomic Scientists.[19]
