Mark Ratner
Mark A. Ratner is an American chemist and the Lawrence B. Dumas Distinguished University Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University. He describes himself as a theoretical materials chemist and focuses on the theory of fundamental chemical processes related to nanoscale applications. Ratner also serves on the Governing Board for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.Education
Ratner graduated from Harvard University in 1964 with an undergraduate degree in chemistry. He obtained his Ph.D. in chemistry from Northwestern University working with G. Ludwig Hofacker, did postdoctoral work in Aarhus and Munich with Jan Linderberg.Ratner taught chemistry at New York University from 1970 until 1974.
In 1974, he and Arieh Aviram proposed the first unimolecular rectifier, thus becoming a pioneer in molecular electronics. He later served as a visiting professor with the National Sciences Research Council at Odense University. He served as department chair at Northwestern University from 1988 until 1991 and as associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences from 1980 until 1984.
Ratner's more current areas of research include electron transfer, self-assembly, nonlinear optical response in molecules, and theories of quantum dynamics.
Ratner is a member of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science. He was nominated to the National Academy of Sciences in 2002. In 2004 he was awarded the Irving Langmuir Award.
In May 2009, Ratner delivered the 14th Annual John Stauffer Lectures at Stanford University. The lecture subjects were "Transport in Molecular Junctions" and "Nano and Energy".
Some of Ratner's collaborators at Northwestern University are George Schatz, Yuri Berlin and Michael R. Wasielewski.Selected works
