November 5, 2008

FRONTIERS IN MATERIALS SCIENCE
VINSE COLLOQUIUM SERIES

*Keynote Speaker 2008 Nano Forum

Dr. Mark Ratner
Morrision Professor of Chemistry
Northwestern University
"Molecular Electronics: Mechanics and Issues"

Ratner Bio: Mark A. Ratner, is Morrison Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University. He is interested in structure and function at the nanoscale, and the theory of fundamental chemical processes. He tries to bring together structure and function in molecular nanostructures, based on theoretical notions, on exemplary calculations, and (very importantly) on collaborations with experimentalists and other theorists, in the US and around the world. Some areas of interest are molecular electronics, electron transfer, self-assembly, nonlinear optical response in molecules, and theories of quantum dynamics. He graduated from Harvard University in 1964 with an undergraduate degree in chemistry. He obtained his Ph.D. in chemistry from Northwestern University, did postdoctoral work in Aarhus and Munich with Jan Linderberg, and taught chemistry at New York University from 1970 until 1974. Later he 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. He has won several awards including the Feynman Award in Nanotechnology from the Foresight Institute and the Langmuir Award from the American Chemical Society. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of  Science he is a member of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science, and he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2002.