Stuart Rice has influenced much of the landscape of modem physical chemistry. He was born in New York City on January 6, 1932. His undergraduate degree is from Brooklyn College (1952), and his graduate degrees are from Harvard (AM, 1954; Ph.D., 1955).

Stuart was married to Marian Rice (nee Coopersmith) for 42 years until her death in 1994. They have two daughters, Barbara and Janet, and a grandson, Joel. After a two-year spell as a Harvard Junior Fellow (which Stuart spent at Yale with J. G. Kirkwood), Stuart came to The University of Chicago in 1957. His ascent was meteoric: he became Full Professor in 1960 and Director of the Institute for the Study of Metals, which Stuart proposed be renamed the James Franck Institute, in January 1962. He remained Director of the James Franck Institute until 1967. He was Chairman of the Chemistry Department (1971-1976) and serves as Dean of Physical Sciences (1981-present).

Stuart has guided the research of numerous graduate students and postdoctoral scientists and set them on course toward future achievements of their own. He has also made important contributions to undergraduate teaching with his innovative and challenging lecture courses, recognized by The University of Chicago with a Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, and through Physical Chemistry written with Steve Berry and John Ross.

Among many other professional activities, he is a member of the Board of Governors of Tel Aviv University and of Argonne National Laboratory. On the national level, he was a member of the National Science Board from 1980 to 1986.

Stuart is a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. He is a Foreign Member of the Royal Danish Academy of Science and Letters and has received honorary degrees from Brooklyn College and Notre Dame University.

His many awards include the Pure Chemistry, Leo Hendrik Baekland, Peter Debye, and Joel Henry Hildebrand Awards of the American Chemical Society, the Marlow Medal of the Faraday Society, the Medal of the Universite Libre de Bruxelles, and the Scientific Achievement Award Medal of CUNY, New York. Included among the many honorary lectureships he has held are the Farkas Lecturer (Hebrew University), Kistiakowsky Lecturer (Harvard University), Baker Lecturer (Cornel1 University), and Centenary Lecturer (Royal Society of Chemistry).

Throughout Stuart’s extraordinarily productive career in research, teaching, and administration, he has been an advocate for chemistry, both nationally and internationally, and has helped to set the direction of our science for the years ahead.

References:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_A._Rice
2. http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev.physchem.59.032607.093731
3. http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/j100009a600