Spiers Memorial Award 2009 Winner

Rudy Marcus HonFRSC
California Institute of Technology, USA

Awarded for his outstanding contributions to the theory of electron transfer and chemical reactivity.

About the Winner

Rudolph A. Marcus, Noyes Professor of Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology, was born in Montreal, Canada in 1923. 

He received a B.Sc. (1943) and Ph.D. (1946) from McGill University (experiment, Carl Winkler), followed by postdoctoral research with Edgar Steacie (experiment) and Oscar Rice (theory). He joined the faculty of the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (1951-64), the University of Illinois (1964-78), and Caltech as Noyes Professor in 1978. 

The "Marcus theory" of electron transfer processes and the RRKM theory of unimolecular reactions continue to be the standard theories in their fields. His pioneering contributions in other areas include vibrationally adiabatic reactions, reaction coordinate Hamiltonians, semiclassical collision theory, intramolecular dynamics, and "mass-independent" isotope effects in stratospheric ozone. The electron transfer theory has been applied to numerous fields and extended to atom, proton, and group transfers. 

His research is characterized by a strong interaction between theory and experiment and currently includes fluorescence intermittency of nanoparticles, single-molecule/ensemble studies of enzymes, "on water" organic reactions, and unusual isotope  effects in reactions. 

His awards include the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1992), the Wolf Prize in Chemistry (1985) and the National Medal of Science (1989).