Martin Karplus
{{Short description|Austrian-American chemist (1930–2024)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Martin Karplus
| image = Martin Karplus Nobel Prize 22 2013.jpg
| caption = Nobel Prize Laureate Martin Karplus during press conference in Stockholm, December 2013
| image_size = 225
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1930|03|15|mf=y}}
| birth_place = Vienna, Austria
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2024|12|28|1930|03|15|mf=y}}
| death_place = Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
| thesis_title = {{nobr|A quantum-mechanical discussion}} of the bifluoride ion
| thesis_url = http://codatest2.library.caltech.edu/44/
| thesis_year = 1954
| citizenship = American, Austrian
| nationality =
| fields = Theoretical chemistry
| workplaces = {{indented plainlist|
- Université de Strasbourg
- Harvard University
- Columbia University
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign}}
| education = {{Plainlist|
| doctoral_advisor = Linus Pauling
| notable_students =
| known_for =
| website = {{URL|https://www.chemistry.harvard.edu/people/martin-karplus}}
| influences =
| influenced =
| awards = {{indented plainlist|
- Irving Langmuir Award (1987)
- Award in Theoretical Chemistry (1993){{cite web | title=Martin Karplus | website=Department of Chemistry, Michigan State University | date=May 13, 2024 | url=https://www.chemistry.msu.edu/faculty-research/portraits/karplus-martin.aspx | access-date=January 3, 2025 | archive-date=July 22, 2024 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240722114505/https://www.chemistry.msu.edu/faculty-research/portraits/karplus-martin.aspx | url-status=live }}
- ForMemRS (2000)
- Linus Pauling Award (2004)
- Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2013)}}
}}
Martin Karplus ({{IPA|de|ˈmaʁtiːn ˈkaʁplʊs|lang}}; March 15, 1930 – December 28, 2024) was an Austrian and American theoretical chemist. He was the Theodore William Richards Professor of Chemistry at Harvard University. He was also the director of the Biophysical Chemistry Laboratory, a joint laboratory between the French National Center for Scientific Research and the University of Strasbourg, France. Karplus received the 2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, together with Michael Levitt and Arieh Warshel, for "the development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems".{{cite press release
| title = The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2013
| publisher = Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
| date = October 9, 2013
| url = https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2013/press.html
| access-date = October 9, 2013
| archive-date = December 24, 2018
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20181224210810/https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2013/press.html%0A%20
| url-status = live
}}{{cite news |last=Chang |first=Kenneth |title=3 Researchers Win Nobel Prize in Chemistry |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/10/science/three-researchers-win-nobel-prize-in-chemistry.html |date=October 9, 2013 |work=New York Times |access-date=October 9, 2013 |archive-date=December 24, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181224210805/https://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/10/science/three-researchers-win-nobel-prize-in-chemistry.html%20 |url-status=live }}{{Cite journal
| pmid = 24277833
| pmc = 3856823
| year = 2013
| last1 = Fersht | first1 = A. R. | author-link1 = Alan Fersht
| title = Profile of Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt, and Arieh Warshel, 2013 nobel laureates in chemistry
| journal = Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
| volume = 110
| issue = 49
| pages = 19656–7
| doi = 10.1073/pnas.1320569110
| bibcode = 2013PNAS..11019656F
| doi-access = free
| pmid = 24184197
| year = 2014
| last1 = Hodak
| first1 = Hélène
| title = The Nobel Prize in chemistry 2013 for the development of multiscale models of complex chemical systems: A tribute to Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt and Arieh Warshel
| journal = Journal of Molecular Biology
| volume = 426
| issue = 1
| pages = 1–3
| doi = 10.1016/j.jmb.2013.10.037
| doi-access = free
}}{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1038/nature.2013.13903| title = Computer modellers secure chemistry Nobels| journal = Nature| year = 2013| last1 = Van Noorden | first1 = R. | s2cid = 211729791}}{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1038/502280a| pmid = 24132265| title = Modellers react to chemistry award: Nobel Prize proves that theorists can measure up to experimenters| journal = Nature| volume = 502| issue = 7471| pages = 280| year = 2013| last1 = Van Noorden | first1 = Richard| bibcode = 2013Natur.502..280V| doi-access = free}}
Early life
Martin Karplus was born on March 15, 1930, in Vienna, Austria.{{Cite web|title=The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2013|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2013/karplus/facts/|access-date=January 18, 2021|website=NobelPrize.org|language=en-US|archive-date=January 26, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126064222/https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2013/karplus/facts/|url-status=live}}{{cite web | last=Richter | first=Hannes | title=Nobel Laureate Martin Karplus Receives Highest Austrian Decoration | website=Austria in USA | date=August 16, 2024 | url=https://www.austria.org/news/nobel-laureate-martin-karplus-receives-highest-austrian-decoration | access-date=January 3, 2025}} He was a child when his family fled from the Nazi-occupation in Austria a few days after the Anschluss in March 1938, spending several months in Zürich, Switzerland and La Baule, France before immigrating to the United States. Prior to their immigration to the United States, the family was known for being "an intellectual and successful secular Jewish family" in Vienna.{{cite book|last=Fuller|first=Robert|title=A Love of Discovery: Science Education – The Second Career of Robert Karplus|publisher=Kluwer Academic|year=2002|isbn=978-0-306-46687-8|location=New York|page=293}} His grandfather, Johann Paul Karplus (1866–1936) was a highly acclaimed professor of psychiatry at the University of Vienna.{{cite book|last=Gaugusch|first=Georg|url=http://www.jewishfamilies.at/index.html|title=Wer einmal war: Das jüdische Großbürgertum Wiens 1800–1938 A-K|publisher=Amalthea Signum|year=2011|isbn=978-3-85002-750-2|location=Wien|pages=1358–1367|archive-date=November 1, 2019|access-date=October 10, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191101133305/http://www.jewishfamilies.at/index.html|url-status=live}} His great-aunt, Eugenie Goldstern, was an ethnologist who was killed during the Holocaust.{{cite journal|last1=Ireland|first1=Corydon|date=June 3, 2015|title=Karplus on film|url=https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2015/06/karplus-on-film/|journal=The Harvard Gazette|access-date=March 26, 2019|archive-date=March 26, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190326003124/https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2015/06/karplus-on-film/|url-status=live}} He was the nephew, by marriage, of the sociologist, philosopher and musicologist Theodor W. Adorno and grandnephew of the physicist Robert von Lieben. His brother, Robert Karplus, was an internationally recognized physicist and educator at University of California, Berkeley. Continuing with the academic family theme, his nephew, Andrew Karplus, is a biochemistry and biophysics professor at Oregon State University.{{cite web | title=College of Science | website=Oregan State | date=February 9, 2024 | url=https://science.oregonstate.edu/directory/andy-karplus | ref={{sfnref|College of Science|2024}} | access-date=January 3, 2025 | archive-date=August 4, 2024 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240804153313/https://science.oregonstate.edu/directory/andy-karplus | url-status=live }}
Education
After earning an AB degree in Chemistry and Physics from Harvard College in 1951,{{Cite news|date=April 21, 2017|title=Harvard's Martin Karplus looks back on path to Nobel Prize|url=https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2017/04/harvards-martin-karplus-looks-back-on-path-to-nobel-prize/|access-date=January 18, 2021|website=Harvard Gazette|language=en-US|archive-date=January 16, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210116142138/https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2017/04/harvards-martin-karplus-looks-back-on-path-to-nobel-prize/|url-status=live}} Karplus pursued graduate studies at the California Institute of Technology. He completed his PhD in 1953{{Cite web|title=Martin Karplus {{!}} American-Austrian chemist|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Martin-Karplus|access-date=January 18, 2021|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en}} under Nobel laureate Linus Pauling.{{cite thesis |degree=PhD |first=Martin |last=Karplus |title=A quantum-mechanical discussion of the bifluoride ion |publisher=California Institute of Technology |date=1954 |url=http://codatest2.library.caltech.edu/44/ |access-date=May 8, 2015 |archive-date=May 18, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150518081923/http://codatest2.library.caltech.edu/44/ |url-status=dead }} According to Pauling, Karplus "was [his] most brilliant student."{{Cite web|url=https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2013/10/harvard-professor-wins-nobel-in-chemistry/|title=Harvard professor wins Nobel in chemistry|date=October 9, 2013|access-date=May 31, 2019|archive-date=March 30, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190330040544/https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2013/10/harvard-professor-wins-nobel-in-chemistry/|url-status=live}} He was an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Oxford (1953–55) where he worked with Charles Coulson.
Teaching career
Karplus taught at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (1955–60) and then Columbia University (1960–65) before moving to join the Chemistry Department faculty at Harvard in 1966.
He was a professor at the Louis Pasteur University in 1996 where he established a research group in Strasbourg, France, after two sabbatical visits between 1992 and 1995 in the NMR laboratory of Jean-François Lefèvre. He has supervised more than 200 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers over his career since 1955.{{cite web | title=Martin Karplus | website=Austria in USA | url=https://www.austriainusa.org/martin-karplus | access-date=January 3, 2025}}
Personal life and death
Karplus was married to Marci and had three children. He died at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on December 28, 2024, at the age of 94.{{cite web |title=The Multifaceted Life of a Nobel Prize Winning Theoretical Chemist |url=https://www.magnifuneralhome.com/martinkarplus |website=Andrew J. Magni & Son Funeral Home |access-date=January 3, 2025}}{{cite news |title=Martin Karplus |url=https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/name/martin-karplus-obituary?id=57162393#obituary |access-date=January 3, 2025 |publisher=Legacy |date=January 3, 2025}}
Research
Karplus published his first academic paper when he was 17 years old. Karplus contributed to many fields in physical chemistry, including chemical dynamics, quantum chemistry, and most notably, molecular dynamics simulations of biological macromolecules. He has also been influential in nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, particularly to the understanding of nuclear spin-spin coupling and electron spin resonance spectroscopy. The Karplus equation describing the correlation between coupling constants and dihedral angles in proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy is named after him.{{cite web | title=C&EN: SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY | website=pubsapp.acs.org | url=https://pubsapp.acs.org/cen/science/8151/8151karplus.html | access-date=January 3, 2025 | archive-date=June 19, 2024 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240619233944/https://pubsapp.acs.org/cen/science/8151/8151karplus.html? | url-status=live }}
From 1969 to 1970, Karplus visited the Structural Studies Division at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology.{{Cite web |last=pmabbs |date=October 9, 2013 |title=LMB Alumni awarded Nobel Prize for Chemistry, 2013 |url=https://www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/lmb-alumni-awarded-nobel-prize-for-chemistry-2013/ |access-date=July 14, 2023 |publisher=MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology |language=en-GB |archive-date=July 14, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230714151345/https://www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/lmb-alumni-awarded-nobel-prize-for-chemistry-2013/ |url-status=live }}
In 1970 postdoctoral fellow Arieh Warshel joined Karplus at Harvard. Together they wrote a computer program that modeled the atomic nuclei and some electrons of a molecule using classical physics and modeling other electrons using quantum mechanics. In 1974 Karplus, Warshel and other collaborators published a paper based on this type of modeling, which successfully modeled the change in shape of retinal, a large complex protein molecule important to vision.
His research was concerned primarily with the properties of molecules of biological interest. His group originated and coordinated the development of the CHARMM program for molecular dynamics simulations.{{cite web | title=Martin Karplus | website=CHARMM | url=https://academiccharmm.org/developers/martinkarplus | access-date=January 3, 2025 | archive-date=August 20, 2024 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240820073010/https://academiccharmm.org/developers/martinkarplus | url-status=live }}
=Books=
- {{cite book |last=Karplus |first=Martin |date=2020 |title=Spinach on the Ceiling: The Multifaceted Life of a Theoretical Chemist |publisher=WORLD SCIENTIFIC (EUROPE) |doi=10.1142/q0238 |isbn=978-1-78634-802-9}}
- {{cite book |last1=Brooks |first1=Charles L. |last2=Karplus |first2=Martin |last3=Pettitt |first3=B. Montgomery |date=November 16, 1988 |title=Advances in Chemical Physics, Volume 71 |publication-place=New York |publisher=Wiley-Interscience |isbn=978-0-471-62801-9}}
- {{cite book |last1=Karplus |first1=Martin |last2=Porter |first2=Richard N. |date=1970 |title=Atoms and Molecules: An Introduction for Students of Physical Chemistry |publication-place=New York |publisher=W. A. Benjamin |isbn=978-0-8053-5218-4}}
=Notable students and postdocs=
- Charles L. Brooks III (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor){{cite web | title=University of Michigan | publisher=Brooks Lab | url=https://brooks.chem.lsa.umich.edu/index.php?page=charles_l._brooks_iii&subdir=articles/group | access-date=January 3, 2025 | archive-date=July 22, 2024 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240722095319/https://brooks.chem.lsa.umich.edu/index.php?page=charles_l._brooks_iii&subdir=articles/group | url-status=live }}
- Axel T. Brunger (Stanford University){{cite journal | last=Mossman | first=Kaspar | title=Profile of Axel Brunger | journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | volume=105 | issue=31 | date=August 5, 2008 | issn=0027-8424 | doi=10.1073/pnas.0806286105 | doi-access=free | pages=10643–10645| pmid=18667701 | pmc=2504785 | bibcode=2008PNAS..10510643M }}
- J. Andrew McCammon (UCSD) (w/ Karplus and Gelin) published the first MD simulation of BPTI{{cite journal | last=McCammon | first=J. Andrew | title=Autobiography of J. Andrew McCammon | journal=The Journal of Physical Chemistry B | volume=120 | issue=33 | date=August 25, 2016 | issn=1520-6106 | doi=10.1021/acs.jpcb.6b00834 | doi-access=free | pages=8057–8060| pmid=27558539 }}
- P. T. Narasimhan (University of Illinois) Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
- B. Montgomery Pettitt (University of Texas Medical Branch, Baylor College of Medicine, The Gulf Coast Consortia (GCC)]){{cite web | title=B. Montgomery Pettitt | website=Chemistry Tree | date=July 31, 2015 | url=https://academictree.org/chemistry/peopleinfo.php?pid=98784 | access-date=January 3, 2025 | archive-date=December 6, 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231206232409/https://academictree.org/chemistry/peopleinfo.php?pid=98784 | url-status=live }}
- Benoît Roux (University of Chicago)
- Andrej Šali (University of California, San Francisco)
- Klaus Schulten (University of Illinois)
- Jeremy C. Smith (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)
- David J. States (The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston)
- Arieh Warshel (University of Southern California) (co-recipient of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, along with Karplus and Michael Levitt (Stanford))
- Eugene Shakhnovich, (Harvard University){{cite journal | last=Karplus | first=Martin | title=SPINACH ON THE CEILING: A Theoretical Chemist's Return to Biology | journal=Annual Review of Biophysics and Biomolecular Structure | volume=35 | issue=1 | date=June 1, 2006 | issn=1056-8700 | doi=10.1146/annurev.biophys.33.110502.133350 | pages=1–47| pmid=16689626 }}
- Alexander D. MacKerell Jr. (University of Maryland, Baltimore)
Awards and honours
Karplus was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1967.{{Cite web|url=http://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/members/53964.html|title=Martin Karplus|website=www.nasonline.org|access-date=December 7, 2016|archive-date=December 20, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220081625/http://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/members/53964.html|url-status=live}} He was awarded the Irving Langmuir Award in 1987.{{Cite web|title=Irving Langmuir Award in Chemical Physics|url=https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/funding-and-awards/awards/national/bytopic/irving-langmuir-award-in-chemical-physics.html|access-date=August 19, 2021|website=American Chemical Society|language=en|archive-date=September 12, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170912102208/https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/funding-and-awards/awards/national/bytopic/irving-langmuir-award-in-chemical-physics.html|url-status=live}} He is a member of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science. He became foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1991{{cite web |url=https://www.knaw.nl/en/members/foreign-members/4342 |title=M. Karplus |publisher=Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences |access-date=July 19, 2015 |archive-date=March 26, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190326155224/https://www.knaw.nl/en/members/foreign-members/4342 |url-status=dead }} and was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 2000.{{cite web | title=Martin Karplus | website=Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften | url=https://www.oeaw.ac.at/en/m/karplus-martin | access-date=January 3, 2025 | archive-date=November 27, 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211127064511/https://www.oeaw.ac.at/en/m/karplus-martin | url-status=live }} He is a recipient of the Christian B. Anfinsen Award, given in 2001. He was awarded the Linus Pauling Award in 2004 and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2013.
See also
References
{{Reflist|2}}
External links
{{Scholia}}
- {{Nobelprize}} – including the Nobel Lecture on December 8, 2013 "Development of Multiscale Models for Complex Chemical Systems From H+H2 to Biomolecules"
- [http://mir.harvard.edu/group/karplus/pub.html Publications]
- [http://chemistry.harvard.edu/people/martin-karplus Karplus research group at Harvard University]
- {{cite web | title=Institute of Supramolecular Science and Engineering (ISIS) | website=University of Strasbourg | url=https://en.unistra.fr/research/sciences-and-technologies/institute-of-supramolecular-science-and-engineering-isis-umr-7006 | access-date=January 3, 2025}}
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20060907001621/http://www.chemistry.msu.edu/Lectureships/lectures.asp?series=MTR&Year=1995 Biography at Michigan State University website]
- [http://www.mkarplusphotographer.com/ Martin Karplus photography website]
- {{cite web | title=Martin Karplus: Chemistry H-index & Awards | website=Research.com | url=https://research.com/u/martin-karplus | ref={{sfnref|Research.com}} | access-date=January 3, 2025}}
{{FRS 2000}}
{{Nobel Chemistry}}
{{2013 Nobel Prize winners}}
{{Portal bar|Chemistry|Biography|Austria|United States}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Karplus, Martin}}
Category:21st-century American chemists
Category:Academic staff of the University of Strasbourg
Category:American biophysicists
Category:American Nobel laureates
Category:Austrian Nobel laureates
Category:California Institute of Technology alumni
Category:Columbia University faculty
Category:Computational chemists
Category:Foreign members of the Royal Society
Category:Harvard College alumni
Category:Harvard University faculty
Category:Jewish American physicists
Category:Jewish emigrants from Austria after the Anschluss to the United Kingdom
Category:Jewish Nobel laureates
Category:Members of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science
Category:Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
Category:Nobel laureates in Chemistry