Kazuo Nakamoto

Kazuo Nakamoto, 89, professor emeritus at Marquette University and an internationally recognized expert in Raman spectroscopy, died on June 7.

Born in Kobe, Japan, Nakamoto earned a B.S. degree in 1945 and a doctorate in 1953, both in chemistry from Osaka University. He then served as a faculty member at Osaka before spending two years at Iowa State University as a Fulbright scholar.

In 1958, he joined the faculty at Clark University in Worcester, Mass., as an assistant professor. He moved to Illinois Institute of Technology in 1961 to become an associate professor before being promoted to professor in 1967. From 1965 until 1973, he also served as a consultant at Argonne National Laboratory. In 1969, he became the first Wehr Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at Marquette, from which he retired in 1991.

Nakamoto published more than 200 papers in scientific journals and authored several influential texts in the field of spectroscopy. He coauthored a book, “Drug-DNA Interactions: Structures and Spectra,” which was published in 2008. He also wrote and revised his well-known two-volume work, “Infrared and Raman Spectra of Inorganic and Coordination Compounds.” He continued his writing up to the final weeks of his life, preparing for future editions of his work. Nakamoto was an emeritus member of ACS, joining in 1959.

He is survived by his wife, Kimiko; sons, Tak and Masaya; and daughter, Mary.