Chemistry Nobel laureate Rudy Marcus passes away just before turning 103
By 
Rebecca Trager2026-07-21T13:29:00
Theoretical chemist who came up with one of his most important ideas in a just month also mentored more than 100 young researchers
The Canadian-born American theoretical chemist Rudy Marcus, who won the chemistry Nobel prize in 1992 for his contributions to the theory of electron transfer reactions in chemical systems, passed away on 16 July – less than a week before turning 103 years old. He kept active in research and in his lab at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) until the end of his life and is remembered as an extraordinarily generous and modest man, despite all his accomplishments.
Across the three US research institutions where Marcus taught and conducted research, Caltech estimates that he mentored more than 100 postgraduate students and postdocs, on top of hundreds more undergraduates.