John Ross (October 2, 1926 – February 18, 2017) was a scientist in physical chemistry and the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Professor of Chemistry at
Stanford University.
Unraveling the mechanisms of complex chemical reactions, Ross opened new avenues in physical chemistry through the development of groundbreaking methods to study complex reactions within intact systems. His theoretical and experimental studies in
statistical mechanics and
chemical kinetics
Chemical kinetics, also known as reaction kinetics, is the branch of physical chemistry that is concerned with understanding the rates of chemical reactions. It is to be contrasted with chemical thermodynamics, which deals with the direction in ...
proved new means to reveal details of
biochemical reactions taking place far from equilibrium and involving many
chemical species
A chemical species is a chemical substance or ensemble composed of chemically identical molecular entities that can explore the same set of molecular energy levels on a characteristic or delineated time scale. These energy levels determine the wa ...
.
Education and career
Born in
Vienna
en, Viennese
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in 1926, Ross left Austria with his parents only days before the outbreak of World War II. They settled in New York, where he studied chemistry at
Queens College (B.S. 1948), with a two-year interruption to serve in the Army from 1944 to 1946. After completing his degree, he went on to perform doctoral research in physical chemistry, studying gas transport properties under the guidance of
Isador Amdur at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
(Ph.D. 1951). This led to postdoctoral work in gas thermometry and the statistical mechanical theory of irreversible processes with physical chemist
John Kirkwood at
Yale
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...
. Ross began his faculty career as assistant professor in chemistry at
Brown University in 1953. There, he launched a program to test the
viscosity
The viscosity of a fluid is a measure of its resistance to deformation at a given rate. For liquids, it corresponds to the informal concept of "thickness": for example, syrup has a higher viscosity than water.
Viscosity quantifies the inte ...
of liquids as a function of temperature and pressure with unprecedented precision. Two years later, he and physical chemist Edward Forbes Greene began nearly two decades of groundbreaking work developing the use of
molecular beams to examine the
molecular dynamics
Molecular dynamics (MD) is a computer simulation method for analyzing the physical movements of atoms and molecules. The atoms and molecules are allowed to interact for a fixed period of time, giving a view of the dynamic "evolution" of t ...
– revealing details of molecular collisions, dispersion, and more during chemical reactions. In 1966 Ross joined the Chemistry Department faculty at MIT, where he served as chair from 1966 to 1971. He came to Stanford in 1979 as professor of chemistry and was department chair from 1983 to 1989. Among many honors recognizing his broad contributions in
physical chemistry
Physical chemistry is the study of macroscopic and microscopic phenomena in chemical systems in terms of the principles, practices, and concepts of physics such as motion, energy, force, time, thermodynamics, quantum chemistry, statistica ...
, Professor Ross was named to the
National Academy of Sciences and
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...
and received the
U.S. National Medal of Science in 2000 from
President Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again ...
.
In his research at Stanford, Ross examined experimental and theoretical investigations in new approaches to the determination of complex reaction mechanisms, the formation of the thermodynamics and statistical mechanics of systems far from equilibrium, the chemical implementation of digital and parallel computers, and application of these studies to biological reaction mechanisms. His contributions in reaction kinetics and dynamics changed chemists’ understanding of reactivity and why many chemical phenomena occur, opening new fields in chemical science.
Honors and awards
* Member of the
National Academy of Sciences, 1976;
*
Irving Langmuir Award in Chemical Physics,
American Chemical Society
The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 155,000 members at all ...
, 1992;
* Dean's Award for Distinguished Teaching, Stanford University, 1992–93;
*
National Medal of Science
The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral and social scienc ...
, 1999;
*
Peter Debye Award
The Peter Debye Award in Physical Chemistry is awarded annually by the American Chemical Society "to encourage and reward outstanding research in physical chemistry". The award is named after Peter Debye and
granted without regard to age or natio ...
in Physical Chemistry,
American Chemical Society
The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 155,000 members at all ...
, 2001;
*
Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art
The Austrian Decoration for Science and Art (german: Österreichisches Ehrenzeichen für Wissenschaft und Kunst) is a state decoration of the Republic of Austria and forms part of the Austrian national honours system.
History
The "Austrian D ...
, 1st class, 2002;
* ACS Theodore William Richards Medal, 2004
External links
Natl. Medal of Sciencew/ bibliographyRaymond Kapral, "John Ross", Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences (2018)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ross, John
1926 births
2017 deaths
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
National Medal of Science laureates
American physical chemists
Stanford University Department of Chemistry faculty
Recipients of the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st class
Yale University staff
Queens College, City University of New York alumni
Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni