| Mark A. Ratner | |
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Mark A. Ratner in 2009.
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| Born | December 8, 1942 |
| Residence | U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | molecular electronics |
| Institutions | Northwestern University |
| Doctoral advisor | G. Ludwig Hofacker, Jan Linderberg |
| Known for | unimolecular rectifier |
Mark A. Ratner (b. 1942, Cleveland) is Morrison 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.
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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.[1] 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.[2] In 2004 he was awarded the Irving Langmuir Award.
In May 2009, Ratner delivered the 14th Annual John Stauffer Lectures at Stanford. The lecture subjects were "Transport in Molecular Junctions" and "Nano and Energy" (energy generation storage in high-tech solar cells and high-tech batteries).[3]