View source for Biography:Stuart A. Rice

{{Short description|American researcher and professor of chemistry}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name              = Stuart A. Rice
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| birth_name = Stuart Alan Rice
| birth_date        = {{Birth date and age|1932|1|6}}
| birth_place       = {{wipe|New York City}}, U.S.
| death_date        = <!-- {{Death date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|YYYY|MM|DD}} (death date then birth date) -->
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| nationality       = American
| fields            = [[Chemistry:Theoretical chemistry|theoretical chemistry]]
| workplaces        = The University of Chicago
| alma_mater        = Bronx High School of Science, [[Organization:Brooklyn College|Brooklyn College]], [[Organization:Harvard University|Harvard University]], [[Organization:Yale University|Yale University]]
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| awards            = {{no wrap|ACS Award in Pure Chemistry <small>(1963)</small><br />Peter Debye Award <small>(1985)</small><br />National Medal of Science <small>(1999)</small><br /> Wolf Prize <small>(2011)</small>}}
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'''Stuart Alan Rice''' (born January 6, 1932) is an American [[Chemistry:Theoretical chemistry|theoretical chemist]] and [[Chemistry:Physical chemistry|physical chemist]].<ref name="one">[http://chemistry.uchicago.edu/fac/rice.shtml Prof. Rice - Chemistry Department - University of Chicago] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090529032253/http://chemistry.uchicago.edu/fac/rice.shtml |date=2009-05-29 }}</ref> He is well known as a theoretical chemist who also does experimental research, having spent much of his career working in multiple areas of physical chemistry. He is currently the Frank P. Hixon Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at the [[Organization:University of Chicago|University of Chicago]].  During his tenure at the University of Chicago, Rice has trained more than 100 Ph.D. students and postdoctoral researchers.<ref>[http://phdtree.org/scholar/rice-stuart-a/ List of PhDs and Postdocs trained by Professor Stuart A. Rice] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150216052925/http://phdtree.org/scholar/rice-stuart-a/ |date=2015-02-16 }}</ref>  He received the National Medal of Science in 1999.<ref name="one"/>

==Education and career==

Stuart Rice attended the Bronx High School of Science,<ref name="two">{{cite journal | last=Rice | first=Stuart A. | title=A Fortunate Life in Physical Chemistry | journal=Annual Review of Physical Chemistry | publisher=Annual Reviews | volume=59 | issue=1 | year=2008 | issn=0066-426X | doi=10.1146/annurev.physchem.59.032607.093731 | pages=1–26| pmid=17669016 | bibcode=2008ARPC...59....1R | doi-access= }}</ref> received his bachelor's degree in 1952 from [[Organization:Brooklyn College|Brooklyn College]], and earned his master's and doctorate from [[Organization:Harvard University|Harvard University]] in 1954 and 1955, respectively.  He was almost unable to attend graduate school due to contracting [[Medicine:Tuberculosis|tuberculosis]], but was cured of the disease through an experimental treatment of [[Chemistry:Isoniazid|isoniazid]] and [[Chemistry:Streptomycin|streptomycin]].<ref name="two"/>  He remained at Harvard as a junior fellow for three years, although he spent the last two years of the fellowship doing research work at [[Organization:Yale University|Yale University's]] chemistry department.  After the fellowship, he joined the faculty of The University of Chicago in 1957, where he has remained since.<ref name="one"/><ref name="two"/>

Rice has served the university in a wide variety of capacities during his fifty-seven year tenure.  He served as the director of the James Franck Institute (the university's center for [[Chemistry:Physical chemistry|physical chemistry]] and [[Physics:Condensed matter physics|condensed matter physics]]) from 1961 to 1967.  He was chairman of the department of [[Chemistry:Chemistry|chemistry]] from 1971 to 1976 and was dean of the physical sciences division from 1981 to 1995.<ref name="one"/>  He served as dean for the [[Organization:Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago|Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago]] from October 2006 through October 2010 and as interim president of the institute from October 2010 to April 2013.

In addition to his work at the university, he is currently on the board of governors at [[Organization:Tel Aviv University|Tel Aviv University]]<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.tau.ac.il/bog/members.html |title=Program Members of The Board Of Governors – Tel Aviv University<!-- Bot generated title --> |access-date=7 September 2007 |archive-date=18 August 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070818035942/http://www.tau.ac.il/bog/members.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> and has served as editor for the journals ''[[Physics:Chemical Physics Letters|Chemical Physics Letters]]''<ref>[http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaleditorialboard.cws_home/505707/editorialboard?navopenmenu=-2 Chemical Physics Letters – Elsevier<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> and ''[[Physics:Advances in Chemical Physics|Advances in Chemical Physics]]'',<ref>[https://archive.today/20121218000440/http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/bookhome/93517918/ProductInformation.html?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0 Wiley Interscience]</ref> and co-authored several physical chemistry textbooks with [[Biography:R. Stephen Berry|Stephen Berry]] and John Ross.<ref>[http://www.oup.com/uk/catalogue/?ci=9780195105896 OUP: UK General Catalogue<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929120558/http://www.oup.com/uk/catalogue/?ci=9780195105896 |date=2007-09-29 }}</ref>

==Research==

Stuart Rice began his scientific career as a high school student and published on this work.<ref>Levine M, Rice SA. 1950. Effect of folic acid, aminopterin and vitamin K on
growth of roots in Allium cepa. Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. Med. 74:310–12
</ref>  He completed his doctoral dissertation under Paul Doty, contributing to the then-emerging field of [[Biology:DNA|DNA]] research;<ref name="two"/> the project shared both experimental and theoretical components, which became a hallmark of his later work.<ref name="two"/>

During his time at Yale, Stuart Rice began to study the transport properties of [[Physics:Liquid|liquid]]s.<ref name="two"/>  He helped to determine the properties of liquid [[Chemistry:Noble gas|noble gas]]es and [[Chemistry:Methane|methane]], while also exploring the theoretical background of transport in liquids as well, comparing the results to simulations of [[Physics:Lennard-Jones potential|Lennard-Jones fluids]].<ref name="two"/>

Following this work he helped to develop the theory of electronic excitations ([[Physics:Exciton|exciton]]s) in molecular crystals and liquids, eventually moving into the area of radiationless molecular transitions, beginning his own experimental work after the development of the Bixon-Jortner model, while also working with collaborators on extending the theoretical model of these transitions.<ref name="two"/>  This research led him to investigate the effects of [[Physics:Quantum chaos|quantum chaos]] on excited molecules, and to couple the developing model of transitions with quantum chaos in order to attain control of the transition of excited molecules. This led to the field of [[Physics:Coherent control|Coherent control]], quantum control through laser excitation, which was developed by other scientists at the University of Chicago.<ref name="two"/>

At the same time, he also began work on understanding the electrical properties of [[Chemistry:Liquid metal|liquid metal]]s, where the lack of translational orders frustrated attempts to understand their [[Physics:Electronic band structure|electronic band structure]].<ref name="two"/>  The discrepancy between the dielectric results of reflectivity and [[Physics:Ellipsometry|ellipsometry]] data of liquid mercury led to work on the nature of [[Physics:Electrical conductivity|conductivity]] at the liquid-vapor surface of liquid metal, ultimately showing that the existence of [[Physics:Ion|ion]] inhomogeneities at the interface led to electronic changes in the bulk liquid that persist for several [[Physics:Atom|atom]]ic diameters into a liquid.<ref name="two"/>

Smaller research topics that Rice has published on included work on the chemistry of [[Chemistry:Water|water]], the theory of [[Physics:Freezing|freezing]] liquids, the properties of monolayers on liquids, and confined [[Physics:Colloid|colloid]]al systems, amongst others.<ref name="two"/>

==Honors and awards==

Rice's most prestigious award is the National Medal of Science, the highest scientific prize awarded in the United States, in 1999. He was awarded the Wolf Prize in Chemistry in 2011, along with Krzysztof Matyjaszewski and [[Biography:Ching W. Tang|Ching Tang]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.wolffund.org.il/cat.asp?id=15&cat_title=CHEMISTRY |title=The 2011 Wolf Prize in Chemistry |access-date=16 February 2011 |archive-date=17 May 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070517203044/http://www.wolffund.org.il/cat.asp?id=15&cat_title=CHEMISTRY |url-status=dead }}</ref> He is a Fellow of both the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Stuart A. Rice |url=http://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/members/51264.html |access-date=2022-05-12 |website=www.nasonline.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Stuart Alan Rice |url=https://www.amacad.org/person/stuart-alan-rice |access-date=2022-05-12 |website=American Academy of Arts & Sciences |language=en}}</ref> and a member of the American Philosophical Society.<ref>{{Cite web |title=APS Member History |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Stuart+Alan+Rice&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |access-date=2022-05-12 |website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref> In 1970 Rice was awarded the Llewellyn John and Harriet Manchester Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, the nation’s oldest prize for undergraduate teaching, a highly esteemed faculty award at The University of Chicago.<ref name="one"/>

==Impact==

Over the course of his long career Rice has shaped much debate on theoretical physical chemistry.  He is cited on the National Medal of Science "for changing the very nature of modern physical chemistry through his research, teaching and writing, using imaginative approaches to both experiment and theory that have inspired a new generation of scientists."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nsf.gov/od/nms/recip_details.cfm?recip_id=290 |title=The President's National Medal of Science: Recipient Details &#124; NSF - National Science Foundation |publisher=Nsf.gov |date=2000-03-14 |access-date=2020-02-22}}</ref>  With over 100 doctoral students to his credit, Stuart Rice has had a great impact on the field of physical chemistry simply through the number of research scientists he has trained.<ref>[http://chronicle.uchicago.edu/050526/maclean.shtml Rice, Straus to receive Maclean<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> Theoretical chemist [[Biography:David Tannor|David Tannor]], who is the Hermann Mayer Professorial Chair in the department of chemical physics at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, did his post-doc work with Stuart Rice and David W. Oxtoby at the University of Chicago.<ref name="auto3a">[http://www.weizmann.ac.il/chemphys/tannor/home "David Tannor's Home Page; Highlights of Research,"] Weizmann Institute of Science, Department of Chemical Physics.</ref><ref name="autoa">{{Cite web|url=http://www.israel21c.org/can-safed-become-israels-aspen/|title=Can Safed become Israel's Aspen?|first=Sharon|last=Kanon|date=June 15, 2007|website=Israel21c}}</ref><ref name="auto2a">{{Cite web|url=https://www.uscibooks.com/tannor.htm|title=Introduction to Quantum Mechanics, A Time Dependent Perspective, David Tannor|website=www.uscibooks.com|access-date=22 February 2020|archive-date=19 November 2002|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021119014530/https://www.uscibooks.com/tannor.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Personal life==

Rice is also famous on campus for eating lunch almost every weekday at the university's Quadrangle Club restaurant (a faculty club), where he has dined over 9,000 times.  Rice is known to sit at the head of the Chemistry table, not because he is the most senior member of the department, but because he is very tall.<ref>[http://magazine.uchicago.edu/0506/features/club.shtml The University of Chicago Magazine<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>

Rice was married to Marian Coopersmith from 1952 until her death in 1994.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Fleming |first1=Graham R. |last2=David |first2=Oxtoby |title=Tribute to Stuart A. Rice |journal=The Journal of Physical Chemistry |volume=99 |issue=9 |date=2 March 1995 |pages=2413–2434 |doi=10.1021/j100009a600 }}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20090529032253/http://chemistry.uchicago.edu/fac/rice.shtml Stuart Rice Profile]
*[https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/scrc/findingaids/view.php?eadid=ICU.SPCL.RICESA Guide to the Stuart Alan Rice Papers 1947-2004] at the [https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/scrc/ University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center]

{{Winners of the National Medal of Science|chemistry}}


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[[Category:Theoretical chemists]]

{{Sourceattribution|Stuart A. Rice}}