Mark Ratner, an American chemist and professor emeritus at Northwestern University, died on May 10, 2026, at the age of 83.
Ratner was known for his work on the interplay between molecular structure and molecular properties. He graduated from Harvard University with an undergraduate degree in chemistry and earned his Ph.D.
in chemistry from Northwestern University. He taught chemistry at New York University from 1970 to 1974 and spent more than 45 years in Northwestern’s chemistry department. In 1974, Ratner and Arieh Aviram proposed the first unimolecular rectifier, helping to pioneer molecular electronics.
Mark Ratner, 83, American chemist.