Richard Zare Wins 2005 Wolf Prize

Stanford University chemistry professor Richard N. Zare has been selected to receive the 2005 Wolf Foundation Prize in Chemistry for "his ingenious applications of laser techniques for identifying complex mechanisms in molecules and their use in analytical chemistry."

The $100,000 prize will be presented on May 22 by the president of Israel, Moshe Katsav, at a special ceremony at the Knesset (parliament) in Jerusalem.

Asked for his reaction to the honor, Zare, 65, tells C&EN, "I am thrilled to be selected but also mindful that so many others are also well deserving--so it is humbling."

The Wolf Prize jury notes that in making "seminal contributions" to the theory and practice of both physical and analytical chemistry, Zare has "profoundly influenced developments in these two areas of science. He is an outstanding spokesman for science [and] has worked relentlessly and successfully for chemistry on the national and international stage."

Zare's research "has taken chemistry to its limits," according to the Israel-based Wolf Foundation. He has used lasers to probe the details of how electrons distribute themselves in atoms and molecules and thus dictate their chemical properties. And he has applied high-resolution and ultrasensitive physical techniques to both chemical and biochemical analysis. Zare's work has generated an impressive collection of new spectroscopic tools for investigating chemical dynamics and studying biochemical processes.

Zare's contributions to the field include the angular analysis of photodissociation fragments, laser-induced fluorescence and chemiluminescence to probe internal state distributions, multiphoton ionization in molecular beams, and two-step laser mass spectrometry.

The foundation says Zare "has pursued the themes of very efficient separation and ultrasensitive detection to their chemical limit, namely the single molecule." He has also demonstrated optical trapping of single molecules.