physics

George C. Schatz

George C. Schatz is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand George C. Schatz rather than just read about it. In short: George Chappell Schatz (born April 14, 1949), the Morrison Professor of Chemistry at Northwestern University, is a theoretical chemist best known for his seminal contributions to the fields of reaction dynamics and nanotechnology. Early life and career Born in Watertown, New York and raised in Sackets Harbor, New York, he obtained his B.

Key takeaways

George C. Schatz belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect George C. Schatz to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of George C. Schatz from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

George Chappell Schatz (born April 14, 1949), the Morrison Professor of Chemistry at Northwestern University, is a theoretical chemist best known for his seminal contributions to the fields of reaction dynamics and nanotechnology.

Early life and career Born in Watertown, New York and raised in Sackets Harbor, New York, he obtained his B. S. in chemistry from Clarkson University in 1971. At Clarkson, he was mentored by organic chemistry professor Richard Partsch, who encouraged him to spend a summer working at Argonne National Laboratory in 1971. He went on to earn a Ph.D. from Caltech in 1976 under Aron Kuppermann. While working on his doctorate, he took classes taught by Richard Feynman on quantum electrodynamics and particle physics. Following postdoctoral work at MIT under John Ross, he joined the chemistry department at Northwestern University. Schatz is a member of the Center for Chemistry at the Space-Time Limit. To date he has co-authored over 1000 scientific papers and co-authored two books with his colleague Mark A. Ratner: Introduction to Quantum Mechanics in Chemistry and Quantum Mechanics in Chemistry. Recently much of Schatz's research has been concerned with nanotechnology and bionanotechnology. His work has collectively received over 130,000 citations, including a 2003 article on the optical properties of nanoparticles which has been cited more than 12,000 times. A longtime senior editor of the Journal of Physical Chemistry, he became its editor-in-chief in 2005. The journal previously (1997) having been split in Journal of Physical Chemistry A (molecular physical chemistry, both theoretical and experimental) and Journal of Physical Chemistry B (solid state, soft matter, liquids), Schatz initiated the spin-off of a third journal, Journal of Physical Chemistry C, focusing on nanotechnology and molecular electronics.

Awards and honors Schatz is a Fellow of the American Physical Society (1987) and a member of the National Academy of Sciences (2007) and the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science. Schatz has won the Ahmed Zewail Prize award of the journal Chemical Physics Letters for "outstanding contributions to the theory and understanding of gas-phase reaction dynamics, plasmonics, and nanostructured materials". The biennial prize was developed by Elsevier to honor Nobel laureate Ahmed Zewail, who was a longtime editor of the journal.

References

External links Official home page at Northwestern University Editorial profile at the Journal of Physical Chemistry home page

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with George C. Schatz

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what George C. Schatz claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to George C. Schatz before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about George C. Schatz ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of George C. Schatz

In research: George C. Schatz appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses George C. Schatz in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: George C. Schatz is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1949 births, American physical chemists, American theoretical chemists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for George C. Schatz outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study George C. Schatz in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what George C. Schatz means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain George C. Schatz out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is George C. Schatz in simple terms?

Why does George C. Schatz matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study George C. Schatz?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on George C. Schatz.