Richard Zare facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Richard Zare
Zare in 2015
Born	Richard Neil Zare (1939-11-19) November 19, 1939 (age 85) Cleveland, Ohio, United States
Alma mater	Harvard University B.A (1961) Ph.D. (1964)
Spouse(s)	Susan Shively Zare
Scientific career
Fields	Chemist
Institutions	Columbia University Stanford University
Thesis	Molecular fluorescence and photodissociation (1964)
Doctoral advisor	Dudley Herschbach
Doctoral students	Hongkun Park William R. Simpson Renato Zenobi Stacey Bent
Other notable students	Andrew Orr-Ewing (postdoc) Shuming Nie (postdoc) Ludger Wöste (postdoc)

Richard Neil Zare, born in 1939, is a famous chemistry professor at Stanford University. He has made big discoveries in chemistry, especially with a method called laser-induced fluorescence (LIF). This method helps scientists study tiny chemical reactions at the molecular level.

LIF is super sensitive! It is used in many areas, from studying living things to looking at stars. It even helped map the human genome, which is like reading the instruction book for our bodies.

Richard Zare loves science and exploring new ideas. He has helped more than 150 PhD students and researchers. He is also a strong supporter of women in science. He became a fellow of the Association for Women in Science (AWIS) in 2008.

Education and Early Career

Richard Zare studied at Harvard University. He earned his first degree in chemistry and physics in 1961. He then completed his PhD in physical and analytical chemistry in 1964.

For his PhD, he worked with Dudley Herschbach. Zare's PhD project was about how molecules glow and break apart when light hits them. This is called Molecular fluorescence and photodissociation.

Becoming a Professor

After finishing his studies, Zare started teaching. In 1965, he became an assistant professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From 1966 to 1969, he worked at JILA at the University of Colorado Boulder. He taught chemistry, physics, and astrophysics there.

In 1969, he became a full professor at Columbia University. He was named the Higgins Professor of Natural Science at Columbia in 1975.

In 1977, Zare moved to Stanford University. He became a full professor of chemistry there. In 1987, he was given the special title of Marguerite Blake Wilbur Professor in Natural Science. He also led the chemistry department from 2005 to 2011.

Amazing Discoveries in Chemistry

Zare is famous for his work with lasers in chemistry. He helped create and improve laser-induced fluorescence (LIF). He used LIF to study how chemical reactions happen and to find tiny amounts of substances.

His research helped scientists understand how energy moves during collisions between molecules. He and his students also created new tools to look at chemical reactions at very small levels. They studied many different things, like minerals, parts of cells, and liquids.

Detecting Tiny Amounts

Early in his career, Zare wondered if LIF could find harmful substances called aflatoxins in liquids. He worked with a researcher named Gerald Diebold. Together, they were the first to use LIF to detect chemicals in liquids.

This discovery opened up many new uses for LIF. It allowed scientists to find single molecules in liquids at room temperature. It also helped improve methods for separating chemicals, like capillary electrophoresis.

Zare and his team also combined LIF with special cameras (CCD imaging). This allowed them to find extremely small amounts of amino acids, which are the building blocks of proteins.

They also developed a method called cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS). This method helps diagnose problems and is used in high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).

Zare is also involved in developing desorption electrospray ionization (DESI) techniques. These techniques help scientists create images of fats, chemicals, and proteins in tissue samples. This can even help in studying diseases like prostate cancer.

"I'm right now very excited about mass spectrometry, still excited about lasers, all types of [analytical techniques], but to me, they're tools. They're not ends in themselves... With new tools and measurement techniques, you can make advances in all types of fundamental problems." Richard Zare

Looking for Life Beyond Earth

Richard Zare has also worked with NASA on astrobiology, which is the study of life in space. In 1996, he was part of a team that published a paper in the journal Science. They suggested that a meteorite from Mars, called ALH84001, might have signs of life from Mars.

Zare used a special laser method to examine samples from inside the meteorite. He found chemicals called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the 4.5-billion-year-old meteorite. This made researchers wonder if there were fossilized remains from Mars. However, some other scientists thought the sample might have been contaminated after it landed on Earth. This caused a lot of discussion.

Zare also worked with NASA to study organic materials from Comet 81P/Wild. These materials were collected by the Stardust Spacecraft.

Awards and Honors