Richard Neil Zare (born November 19, 1939, in
Cleveland
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
, Ohio) is the Marguerite Blake Wilbur Professor in Natural Science and a Professor of
Chemistry at
Stanford University.
Throughout his career, Zare has made a considerable impact 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 ...
and
analytical chemistry
Analytical chemistry studies and uses instruments and methods to separate, identify, and quantify matter. In practice, separation, identification or quantification may constitute the entire analysis or be combined with another method. Separati ...
, particularly through the development of
laser-induced fluorescence
Laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) or laser-stimulated fluorescence (LSF) is a spectroscopic method in which an atom or molecule is excited to a higher energy level by the absorption of laser light followed by spontaneous emission of light. It was f ...
(LIF) and the study of
chemical reaction
A chemical reaction is a process that leads to the IUPAC nomenclature for organic transformations, chemical transformation of one set of chemical substances to another. Classically, chemical reactions encompass changes that only involve the pos ...
s at the molecular and nanoscale level.
LIF is an extremely sensitive technique with applications ranging from analytical chemistry and molecular biology to astrophysics.
One of its applications was the sequencing of the
human genome
The human genome is a complete set of nucleic acid sequences for humans, encoded as DNA within the 23 chromosome pairs in cell nuclei and in a small DNA molecule found within individual mitochondria. These are usually treated separately as the ...
.
Zare is known for his enthusiasm for science and his exploration of new areas of research.
He has mentored over 150 PhD students and postdoctoral researchers, of whom more than 49 are women or members of minorities.
Zare is a strong advocate for women in science,
and a fellow of the
Association for Women in Science The Association for Women in Science (AWIS) was founded in 1971 at the annual Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) meeting. The organization aims to combat job discrimination, lower pay, and professional isolation. The ...
(AWIS) as of 2008.
Education
Zare earned his BA in chemistry and physics in 1961 and his PhD in 1964 in physical and analytical chemistry at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
. As an undergraduate he worked with
William Klemperer
William A. Klemperer (October 6, 1927 – November 5, 2017) was an American chemist who was one of the most influential chemical physicists and molecular spectroscopists in the second half of the 20th century. Klemperer is most widely known fo ...
.
Zare moved to the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
to do PhD work with
Dudley Herschbach
Dudley Robert Herschbach (born June 18, 1932) is an American chemist at Harvard University. He won the 1986 Nobel Prize in Chemistry jointly with Yuan T. Lee and John C. Polanyi "for their contributions concerning the dynamics of chemical eleme ...
, then returned 2 years later when Herschbach accepted a position at Harvard. Zare completed his PhD thesis, a theoretical analysis of ''Molecular fluorescence and photodissociation'', with Herschbach at Harvard in 1964.
Career
Zare joined
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 ...
as an assistant professor in 1965. From 1966 to 1969, he was jointly appointed in the departments of chemistry, physics and astrophysics at
JILA
JILA, formerly known as the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics, is a physical science research institute in the United States. JILA is located on the University of Colorado Boulder campus. JILA was founded in 1962 as a joint institute ...
at the
University of Colorado Boulder
The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado sy ...
. In 1969 he became a full professor in the Department of Chemistry at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
.
He was named the Higgins Professor of Natural Science at Columbia in 1975.
In 1977 Zare accepted a position as a full professor of chemistry at
Stanford University, becoming the Marguerite Blake Wilbur Professor in Natural Science in 1987. He served as chair of the chemistry department from 2005 to 2011.
Zare served on the
National Science Board
The National Science Board (NSB) of the United States establishes the policies of the National Science Foundation (NSF) within the framework of applicable national policies set forth by the President and the Congress. The NSB also serves as an ind ...
(NSB) of the
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National ...
(NSF) from 1990 to 1996, and was the board's chair from 1994 to 1996.
He was a founding co-editor of the ''
Annual Review of Analytical Chemistry
The ''Annual Review of Analytical Chemistry'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes an annual volume of review articles relevant to analytical chemistry. It was established in 2008 and is published by Annual Reviews.
History
The ''A ...
'' from 2008–2012.
He is a member of the editorial advisory boards of other scientific publications, among them ''
Chemistry World'', ''
Angewandte Chemie
''Angewandte Chemie'' (, meaning "Applied Chemistry") is a weekly peer-reviewed scientific journal that is published by Wiley-VCH on behalf of the German Chemical Society (Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker). Publishing formats include feature-length ...
'', ''
Central European Journal of Chemistry
''Open Chemistry'' is a monthly peer-reviewed open access scientific journal covering all fields of chemistry. It is published by Walter de Gruyter. The editor-in-chief is Joaquín Plumet, (Complutense University).
History
The journal was establi ...
'', ''Journal of Separation Sciences'' and the ''Chinese Journal of Chromatography''.
Zare served on the Physical Sciences jury for the
Infosys Prize
The Infosys Prize is an annual award given to scientists, researchers, engineers and social scientists of Indian origin (not necessarily born in India) by the Infosys Science Foundation and ranks among the highest monetary awards in India to r ...
from 2014 to 2016.
He is chairman of the board of directors at
Annual Reviews, Inc., and serves on the board of directors of
The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation
The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation is a New York City-based foundation founded in 1946 by chemist and investor Camille Dreyfus in honour of his brother, Henry Dreyfus. The two men invented the acetate yarn Celanese, and Henry Dreyfus was ...
.
Research
Zare is well known for his research in
laser
A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word "laser" is an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation". The fi ...
chemistry, particularly the development of laser-induced fluorescence, which he has used to study
reaction dynamics
Reaction dynamics is a field within physical chemistry, studying why chemical reactions occur, how to predict their behavior, and how to control them. It is closely related to chemical kinetics, but is concerned with individual chemical events on ...
and analytical detection methods.
His research on the spectroscopy of chemical compounds suggested a new mechanism for energy transference in
inelastic collisions
An inelastic collision, in contrast to an elastic collision, is a collision in which kinetic energy is not conserved due to the action of internal friction.
In collisions of macroscopic bodies, some kinetic energy is turned into vibrational energ ...
.
He and his students have developed tools and techniques to examine
chemical reaction
A chemical reaction is a process that leads to the IUPAC nomenclature for organic transformations, chemical transformation of one set of chemical substances to another. Classically, chemical reactions encompass changes that only involve the pos ...
s at the molecular and nanoscale levels. They have explored a wide-ranging variety of problems in physical chemistry and chemical analysis including examination of heterogeneous structures in mineral samples, the contents of cells and subcellular compartments, and the chemical analysis of liquid samples.
Early in his career, the question of whether laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) could be used to study
aflatoxins
Aflatoxins are various poisonous carcinogens and mutagens that are produced by certain molds, particularly ''Aspergillus'' species. The fungi grow in soil, decaying vegetation and various staple foodstuffs and commodities such as hay, sweetco ...
spurred Zare to adapt LIF for use on liquids. Work with postdoc Gerald Diebold resulted in the first use of LIF for detection in chemical analysis.
This opened up the potential for a wide variety of fluid applications,
including the detection of single molecules in liquids at room-temperature
and detection methods for
capillary electrophoresis
Capillary electrophoresis (CE) is a family of electrokinetic separation methods performed in submillimeter diameter capillaries and in micro- and nanofluidic channels. Very often, CE refers to capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE), but other elect ...
.
Zare and his coworkers have combined
CCD imaging
A charge-coupled device (CCD) is an integrated circuit containing an array of linked, or coupled, capacitors. Under the control of an external circuit, each capacitor can transfer its electric charge to a neighboring capacitor. CCD sensors are a ...
with LIF detection to detect amol and zeptamole amounts of FITC-labelled
amino acids.
Zare and his students have also developed
cavity ring-down spectroscopy Cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS) is a highly sensitive optical spectroscopic technique that enables measurement of absolute optical extinction by samples that scatter and absorb light. It has been widely used to study gaseous samples which ab ...
(CRDS) for quantitative diagnosis,
and for
high performance liquid chromatography
High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), formerly referred to as high-pressure liquid chromatography, is a technique in analytical chemistry used to separate, identify, and quantify each component in a mixture. It relies on pumps to pa ...
(HPLC)
Zare is also involved in the development of
desorption electrospray ionization
Desorption electrospray ionization (DESI) is an ambient ionization technique that can be coupled to mass spectrometry (MS) for chemical analysis of samples at atmospheric conditions. Coupled ionization sources-MS systems are popular in chemical a ...
(DESI) techniques, which are being used for mass spectrometric imaging of lipids, metabolites and proteins in tissue samples, including prostate cancer.
Zare has also worked with NASA and others on
astrobiology.
He is one of the co-authors of a paper that appeared in ''Science'' in 1996, raising the possibility that a meteorite from Mars,
ALH84001
Allan Hills 84001 (ALH84001) is a fragment of a Martian meteorite that was found in the Allan Hills in Antarctica on December 27, 1984, by a team of American meteorite hunters from the ANSMET project. Like other members of the shergottite– nak ...
, contained traces of Martian life.
Zare used two-step laser mass spectrometry (L2MS), a technique that is particularly sensitive to organic molecules, to examine samples from the interior of the meteorite.
He found that the 4.5-billion-year-old Martian meteorite, discovered in Antarctica, contained
polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
A polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) is a class of organic compounds that is composed of multiple aromatic rings. The simplest representative is naphthalene, having two aromatic rings and the three-ring compounds anthracene and phenanthrene. ...
. This lead researchers to speculate on the presence of fossilized remains from Mars.
Other researchers questioned this interpretation, suggesting that the sample might have been contaminated after its arrival on Earth. Considerable controversy resulted,
which Zare felt disrupted his ongoing laboratory research.
Zare has also worked with NASA on examinations of organic materials obtained from Comet
81P/Wild
Comet 81P/Wild, also known as Wild 2 (pronounced "vilt two") ( ), is a comet named after Swiss astronomer Paul Wild, who discovered it on January 6, 1978, using a 40-cm Schmidt telescope at Zimmerwald, Switzerland.
For most of its 4.5 billion ...
by the
Stardust Spacecraft.
Publications
Zare has published several books, including a widely used textbook on the topic of angular momentum in quantum systems that is considered a classic for its explanations of angular momentum algebra and the fundamentals of molecular spectroscopy.
He is an author or co-author of more than 1,000 peer-reviewed papers.
Selected publications
*
*
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*
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Books
*
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*
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*
Awards, honors and fellowships
* 1974 – National Fresenius Award,
Phi Lambda Upsilon
Phi Lambda Upsilon National Honorary Chemical Society () was founded in 1899 at the Noyes Laboratory of the University of Illinois. Phi Lambda Upsilon was the first honor society dedicated to scholarship in a single discipline, chemistry.
Object ...
* 1976 – Member,
National Academy of Sciences
* 1976 – Member,
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 ...
* 1979 – inaugural recipient of the Michael Polanyi Medal,
Royal Society of Chemistry
The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is a learned society (professional association) in the United Kingdom with the goal of "advancing the chemical sciences". It was formed in 1980 from the amalgamation of the Chemical Society, the Royal Instit ...
* 1981 –
Earle K. Plyler Prize
* 1983 – Spectroscopy Society of Pittsburgh Award
* 1983 –
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 ...
* 1985 –
Irving Langmuir Award in Chemical Physics
* 1986 –
Michelson-Morley Award
* 1986 – John Gamble Kirkwood Award, ACS New Haven Section, "in recognition of his fundamental contributions in experimental and theoretical aspects of reaction dynamics."
* 1990 –
Willard Gibbs Medal
The Willard Gibbs Award, presented by thChicago Sectionof the American Chemical Society, was established in 1910 by William A. Converse (1862–1940), a former Chairman and Secretary of the Chicago Section of the society and named for Professor Jo ...
* 1991 –
Peter Debye Award
* 1991 –
National Academy of Sciences Award in Chemical Sciences, "For his pioneering laser-based techniques, deep insights, and seminal contributions, which have influenced every facet of chemical reaction dynamics."
* 1991 – Member,
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
* 1993 –
Dannie Heineman Prize
* 1993 – The
Harvey Prize
Harvey Prize is an annual Israeli award for breakthroughs in science and technology, as well as contributions to peace in the Middle East granted by the Technion in Haifa.
History
The prize is named for industrialist and inventor Leo Harvey. T ...
* 1995 – ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry Award in Chemical Instrumentation
* 1996 – The Bing Fellowship teaching award
* 1997 – California Scientist of the Year Award
* 1998 –
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 ...
Award in Analytical Chemistry
* 1999 –
E. Bright Wilson Award in Spectroscopy
The E. Bright Wilson Award in Spectroscopy is awarded annually by the American Chemical Society ''to recognize outstanding accomplishments in fundamental or applied spectroscopy in chemistry.'' It was first awarded in 1997 and was named in honor ...
* 1999 –
Welch Award
The Welch Award in Chemistry is awarded annually by the Robert A. Welch Foundation The Welch Foundation, based in Houston, Texas, is one of the United States' oldest and largest private funding sources for chemistry researchers. It is a non-profi ...
in Chemistry
* 1999 – Foreign Member of the
Royal Society of London
The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
* 2000 – honorary doctorate, Faculty of Science and Technology,
Uppsala University
Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation.
The university rose to significance during ...
, Sweden
* 2000 –
Arthur L. Schawlow Prize in Laser Science
* 2000 – Nobel Laureate Signature Award for Graduate Education
* 2001 –
Charles Lathrop Parsons Award
The Charles Lathrop Parsons Award is usually a biennial award that recognizes outstanding public service by a member of the American Chemical Society (ACS). Recipients are chosen by the American Chemical Society Board of Directors, from a list of ...
* 2001 –
Faraday Lectureship Prize
The Faraday Lectureship Prize, previously known simply as the Faraday Lectureship, is awarded once every two years (approximately) by the Royal Society of Chemistry for "exceptional contributions to physical or theoretical chemistry".. Named afte ...
, Royal Society of Chemistry
* 2003 – Laurance and Naomi Carpenter Hoagland Prize
* 2004 – Foreign member,
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
* 2004 – Foreign member,
Chinese Academy of Sciences
The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); ), known by Academia Sinica in English until the 1980s, is the national academy of the People's Republic of China for natural sciences. It has historical origins in the Academia Sinica during the Republi ...
(CAS), Beijing, P.R.C.
* 2004 –
James Flack Norris Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Teaching of Chemistry, Northeastern Section of the American Chemical Society
* 2005 –
Nichols Medal, ACS (New York Section)
* 2005 –
Wolf Prize
The Wolf Prize is an international award granted in Israel, that has been presented most years since 1978 to living scientists and artists for ''"achievements in the interest of mankind and friendly relations among people ... irrespective of nati ...
in Chemistry
* 2005 – Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professorship
* 2009 –
F.A. Cotton Medal for Excellence in Chemical Research of the
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 ...
* 2009 –
BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award
The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards () are an international award programme recognizing significant contributions in the areas of scientific research and cultural creation. The categories that make up the Frontiers of Knowledge Awards ...
in Basic Science (co-winner with
Michael Fisher
Michael Ellis Fisher (3 September 1931 – 26 November 2021) was an English physicist, as well as chemist and mathematician, known for his many seminal contributions
to statistical physics, including but not restricted to the theory of phase t ...
)
* 2010 –
Priestley Medal
* 2011 –
King Faisal International Prize
The King Faisal Prize ( ar, جائزة الملك فيصل, formerly King Faisal International Prize), is an annual award sponsored by King Faisal Foundation presented to "dedicated men and women whose contributions make a positive difference". T ...
*2012 – Recipient of the
Reed M. Izatt and James J. Christensen Lectureship.
*2017 –
Othmer Gold Medal
The Othmer Gold Medal recognizes outstanding individuals who contributed to progress in chemistry and science through their activities in areas including innovation, entrepreneurship, research, education, public understanding, legislation, and ph ...
from the
Chemical Heritage Foundation
The Science History Institute is an institution that preserves and promotes understanding of the history of science. Located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, it includes a library, museum, archive, research center and conference center.
It was fo ...
References
External links
Richard Zare's film collectionat
Stanford University's archives
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zare, Richard N.
1939 births
Living people
Foreign Members of the Royal Society
Harvard College alumni
Jewish American scientists
Jewish chemists
National Medal of Science laureates
American physical chemists
Stanford University Department of Chemistry faculty
Columbia University faculty
Wolf Prize in Chemistry laureates
Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences
Faraday Lecturers
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
Foreign members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
Spectroscopists
Fellows of the American Physical Society
Annual Reviews (publisher) editors
21st-century American Jews
Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni