chemistry

Mark Ratner

Mark Ratner is a chemistry 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 Mark Ratner rather than just read about it. In short: Mark Alan Ratner (December 8, 1942 – May 10, 2026) was an American chemist and professor emeritus at Northwestern University whose work focused on the interplay between molecular structure and molecular properties. He is widely credited as the "father of molecular-scale electronics" thanks to his groundbreaking work with Arieh Aviram in 1974 that first envisioned how electronic circuit elements might be constructed…

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Mark Alan Ratner (December 8, 1942 – May 10, 2026) was an American chemist and professor emeritus at Northwestern University whose work focused on the interplay between molecular structure and molecular properties. He is widely credited as the "father of molecular-scale electronics" thanks to his groundbreaking work with Arieh Aviram in 1974 that first envisioned how electronic circuit elements might be constructed from single molecules and how these circuits might behave.

Education Ratner graduated from Harvard University with an undergraduate degree in chemistry and obtained his Ph.D. in chemistry from Northwestern University.

Academic career Ratner taught chemistry at New York University from 1970 until 1974. In 1974, he and Arieh Aviram proposed the first unimolecular rectifier, thus becoming pioneers in molecular electronics. During more than 45 years in the chemistry department at Northwestern University, Ratner was the inaugural Lawrence B. Dumas Distinguished University Professor, the Charles E. and Emma H. Morrison Professor in Chemistry, associate and interim dean of the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, Co-director of ISEN (Institute for Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern), recipient of the Northwestern Alumni Merit Award, and an eleven-time member of the Faculty Teaching Honor Roll. Ratner's major areas of research included nonlinear optical response properties of molecules; electron transfer and molecular electronics; quantum dynamics and relaxation in condensed phase; mean-field models for extended systems, including proteins and molecular assemblies; photonics in nanoscale systems; excitons in molecule-based photovoltaics and hybrid classical/quantum representations. He has published more than 1,000 papers in these fields through international collaborations, particularly in Denmark, Israel and the Netherlands. He was a member of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, and the National Academy of Sciences. His honors and awards include the Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology, the Irving Langmuir Award in Chemical Physics, the Willard J. Gibbs Award, the Peter Debye Award in Physical Chemistry, and honorary ScD degrees from Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the University of Copenhagen. He also served on the Governing Board for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

Death Ratner died on May 10, 2026, at the age of 83.

Selected works Molecular Electronics II (Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences) (July 1998) ISBN 1-57331-156-1 Same (ed. with Ari Aviram, Vladimiro Mujica) (May 2002) ISBN 1-57331-410-2 Electron transport in molecular wire junctions, Nitzan, A.; Ratner, M. A., Science 2003, 300, (5624), 1384–1389. Microscopic study of electrical transport through individual molecules with metallic contacts. I. Band lineup, voltage drop, and high-field transport, Xue, Y. Q.; Ratner, M. A., Physical Review B 2003, 68, (11). Molecular electronics: Some views on transport and beyond, Joachim, C.; Ratner, M. A, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2005, 102, (25), 8800–8800. Intermolecular charge transfer between heterocyclic oligomers. Effects of heteroatom and molecular packing on hopping transport in organic semiconductors, Hutchison, G. R.; Ratner, M. A.; Marks, T. J., Journal of the American Chemical Society 2005, 127, (48), 16866–16881. Single-molecule pulling and the folding of donor-acceptor oligorotaxanes: Phenomenology and interpretation, Franco, I.; Schatz, G. C.; Ratner, Journal of Chemical Physics 2009, 131, (12). Geometry and Electronic Coupling in Perylenediimide Stacks: Mapping Structure-Charge Transport Relationships, Vura-Weis, J.; Ratner, M. A.; Wasielewski, M. R., Journal of the American Chemical Society 2010, 132, (6), 1738–+. Exploring local currents in molecular junctions, Solomon, G. C.; Herrmann, C.; Hansen, T.; Mujica, V.; Ratner, M. A., Nature Chemistry 2010, 2, (3), 223–228. Molecular spintronics: Destructive quantum interference controlled by a gate, Saraiva-Souza, A.; Smeu, M.; Zhang, L.; Souza Filho, A. G.; Guo, H.; Ratner, M. A., Journal of the American Chemical Society 2014, 136, (42), 15065–15071. Quantum Mechanics in Chemistry (with George C. Schatz) (2002-01-28) ISBN 0-486-42003-5 Introduction to Quantum Mechanics in Chemistry (with George C. Schatz) (2000-05-18) ISBN 0-13-895491-7 Nanotechnology: A Gentle Introduction to the Next Big Idea (with Daniel Ratner) (2002-11-18) ISBN 0-13-101400-5 Nanotechnology and Homeland Security: New Weapons for New Wars (with Daniel Ratner) (2003-10-24) ISBN 0-13-145307-6

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Mark Ratner

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Mark Ratner claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, 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 Mark Ratner 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 Mark Ratner 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 Mark Ratner

In research: Mark Ratner appears in chemistry 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 Mark Ratner 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: Mark Ratner is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1942 births, 2026 deaths, 20th-century American chemists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Mark Ratner 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 Mark Ratner in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Mark Ratner 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 Mark Ratner out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Mark Ratner in simple terms?

Why does Mark Ratner matter?

Because it connects several chemistry 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 Mark Ratner?

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 Mark Ratner.