Marcus Lecture Series

About the Series

Dr. Christopher Murray with the 2018 Marcus Lecture Committee before his talk "Building with Artificial Atoms: The Design of Multifunctional Nanomaterials and Devices through Nanocrystal Self-assembly". Pictured bottom to top, left to right: Nick Alaniva, Dr. Christopher Murray, Abby Delawder, Meikun Shen, Daniel Mulrow, Kendra White-Drayton, Erin Gemmell, Leonel Griego, Ike West

Involved in the pharmaceutical industry for many years, Jack and Gertrude Marcus established the Missouri Analytical laboratories in 1964 as an independent pharmaceutical testing and manufacturing company. In 1974, they founded the Missouri Research laboratory, a manufacturing company which produces povidone-iodine powder, an antibacterial agent used in surgical scrubs and liquid preps.

Jack Marcus was an active member of the St. Louis section of the ACS during the sixties and seventies. He worked as Affiliate Director of the Continuing Education Extension at Washington University, and organized a successful lecture series. He received the ACS Board of Directors Citation in 1967 for his work in Continuing Education. Jack Marcus was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Health and Honorary Vice President of the St. Louis University. He also established the Leopold Marcus Award Competition at St. Louis University.

Marcus Lecture Committee

The committee organizing the Marcus Lecture is entirely student-run and student-governed. Graduate students select future committee members, all of whom serve for 2 years. 

2nd-year graduate students: Nick Alaniva, Abby Delawder, Erin Gemmell, Daniel Mulrow

3rd-year graduate students: Leonel Griego, Meikun Shen, Ike West, Kendra White-Drayton

Past Marcus Lectures

Year Lecturer Affiliation
2023 Sharon Hammes-Schiffer Yale University
2022 Phil Baran Scripps Research Institute
2019 M. Christina White University of Illinois
2018 Christopher Murray

University of Pennsylvania
2017 Jennifer Lewis

Harvard University
2016 Richard Eisenberg University of Rochester
2015 Stephen Buchwald Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2014 Roger Tsien University of California, San Diego
2013 Ad Bax National Institute of Health
2012 Paul Wender Stanford University
2011 Muhammad Yousaf York University of Toronto, Canada
2010 Daniel Nocera Harvard University
2009 Laura Kiessling University of Wisconsin, Madison
2007 Richard Zare Stanford University
2006 Larry Overman University of California, Irvine
2005 Malcolm Chisholm Ohio State University
2004 Geoffrey Coates Cornell University
2003 Gregory Fu Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2002 Paul Alivisatos University of California, Berkeley
2001 Josef Michl University of Colorado, Boulder
2000 Jean Frechet University of California, Berkeley
1999 Tobin Marks Northwestern University
1998 Robert Langer Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1997 JoAnne Stubbe Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1996 Peter G. Schultz University of California, Berkeley
1995 George M. Whitesides Harvard University
1994 Thomas R. Cech University of Colorado, Boulder
1993 Barry M. Trost Stanford University
1992 Ian Rothwell Purdue University
1991 Louis S. Hegedus Colorado State University
1990 John Waugh Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1989 Lila Gierasch University of Texas Southwest Medical Center