Professor Tobin Marks has been elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in recognition of extraordinary accomplishments in his field in the mathematical and physical sciences class.
Marks is the Vladimir N. Ipatieff Professor of Catalytic Chemistry in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. He also is professor of materials science and engineering and professor of chemical and biological engineering in the McCormick School of Engineering.
Tobin Marks is a world leader in the fields of organometallic chemistry, chemical catalysis, materials science, organic electronics, photovoltaics and nanotechnology. He has developed processes for numerous types of recyclable, environmentally friendly plastics, efficient organic displays and transistor circuitry, organic solar energy cells and pharmaceutical building blocks.
Marks designed a co-catalyst that led to what is now a standard process for producing cleaner, greener and more versatile polyolefins, including polyethylene and polypropylene, on a huge industrial scale. He also has developed catalytic processes for recycling these polyolefins. Marks has pioneered advanced photovoltaic solar cells, composed of flexible, efficient, low-cost organic materials, as well as new materials for sensors and light modulators enabling high-speed optical data transmission and processing. His other achievements include high-performance printed transistors and light-emitting diodes based on organic materials (OLEDs).
Marks has received numerous national and international awards and honors during his career. These include the Harvey Prize in Science and Technology, the Prince of Asturias Prize in Advanced Materials, the Dreyfus Prize in Chemical Sciences, the American Chemical Society Priestley Medal and the U.S. National Medal of Science. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, the Leopoldina (the German National Academy of Sciences), the Lincei (the Italian National Academy of Sciences and the U.S. National Academy of Inventors. He is a Foreign Fellow of the European Academy of Sciences.
Marks has authored more than 1,686 articles in peer-reviewed journals and edited six books. He holds 278 U.S. patents and is the founder of three startup companies, Polyera Inc., Flexterra Inc. and Penguin Chemicals Inc. Furthermore, Marks has mentored over 200 Ph.D. students and nearly as many postdoctoral fellows and visiting scholars, with more than 150 now holding tenure-line academic positions across the globe.