Remembering Rudolph Marcus

ECS Mourns Passing of Nobel Laureate and Community Member

Rudolph Marcus

Rudolph Marcus, who was born on July 21, 1923, passed away on July 16, 2026. Through his long career, Dr. Marcus inspired generations of electrochemists, and his contributions will continue to inspire generations to come. He received call announcing his winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry at the 182nd ECS Meeting.

One group of electrochemists will never forget October 14, 1992. On that day, Dr. Marcus was presenting his second paper, “Electron Transfer Across Interfaces,” at the 182nd ECS Meeting in Toronto, Canada, when an urgent call, purporting to be from the Royal Academy of Science in Stockholm, came into the office for him.¹ Rather than interrupt Dr. Marcus for what could be a prank, the office called the Academy. Yes, the call was real. However, Stockholm refused to say what they were calling about!

ECS President Wayne Worrell then brought Dr. Marcus to the office. He took the call and learned that he was receiving the 1992 Nobel Prize in Chemistry “for his contributions to the theory of electron transfer reactions in chemical systems.”² News of the award spread through the meeting like wildfire and Dr. Marcus was warmly congratulated by his Electrochemical Society peers.

Congratulations for Dr. Marcus’ achievement continued in the winter of 1992, when he was featured on the cover of the inaugural issue of Interface, ECS’s new membership magazine.³  Gregory Voth (now the Haig P. Papazian Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago) reflected in that issue on Dr. Marcus as a graduate advisor and mentor.

Dr. Marcus gets the call from the Royal Academy of Science

“Very early in my graduate studies, he recognized a certain independence in me. Rather than trying to mold me to fit his own research agenda, Rudy respected my independence and, in fact, strongly encouraged it. His supportive and generous attitude contributed more toward my development as a scientist than anything else in my education. He is indeed a great scientist and a rare individual.”⁴

Dr. Marcus’ ongoing relationship with ECS included the publication in 1962 of “Studies on Alternating Current Electrolysis IV . Mathematical Treatment of Reversible Electron Transfer with Alternating Voltage Control and Distorted Current.”⁵ He presented two ECS Lectures at ECS biannual meeting plenary sessions. The first, at the 156th ECS Meeting  in Los Angeles, CA, in 1979, was titled “Theory of Electron and Proton Transfer Reactions at Electrodes.” The second, “Electron Transfers in Electrochemistry, Chemistry, and Biology,” was presented in 1996 at the 189th ECS Meeting in Los Angeles, CA. 

When asked in a 2016 podcast interview with ECS how the Society could better serve the electrochemical community, Dr. Marcus responded, “Encourage people to think deeply and not just produce a lot of the same sort of stuff. It’s very easy, especially in this computer age, to…get high productivity, big publication lists. But then you have to ask yourself, what is novel about that?” ⁶

Dr. Marcus traces this passion for inventive theoretical electrochemistry to his childhood fascination with puzzles. This intellectual curiosity led to his remarkable theory explaining the “fundamental processes behind photosynthesis, respiration, oxidation, and even how fireflies produce light.”⁷  

The ECS community mourns the loss of their member, mentor, colleague, collaborator, and friend, Rudolph Marcus.

Read “Studies on Alternating Current Electrolysis: IV. Mathematical Treatment of Reversible Electron Transfer with Alternating Voltage Control and Distorted Current,” A. Edward Remick and Rudolph A. Marcus’ foundational 1962  Journal of The Electrochemical Society paper that develops mathematical equations relating faradaic current, voltage, and time under alternating voltage control.