How the Prize Changed Their Lives

Rudolph Marcus, 78, a professor of chemistry at Caltech, was awarded the 1992 Nobel in chemistry for his theoretical work on electron transfer. He developed a mathematical formula to predict the transfer rate of electrons from one molecule to another, a common occurrence that is a part of photosynthesis and oxidation. Marcus spoke with Martin Booe about life after winning the prize.

I’d thought getting the prize was a possibility because this particular theory had been very widely used--far more than I’d ever imagined when I came up with it. I just thought it would be a fun problem to do.

When they told me I was getting the prize, I was in Toronto, and wanted to get in touch with my family. But nobody was at home. My wife was in North Carolina visiting family, and my three sons were also out of town. It was several hours before I could reach anybody. I felt so helpless.

The ceremony is impressive. First of all, you’re sitting onstage with the king and queen of Sweden and members of the [Royal] Swedish Academy [of Sciences]. It’s in a big hall, and you’re wearing not tuxedos but these full-length tails, and there’s this glorious music. There’s a big banquet set in this grand hall, and you come down a big series of steps, and there is a huge, long table and 1,200 guests, and it’s all very, very dramatic.

The whole week is filled with lectures and student parties that last until 3 a.m., and press conferences at 9 a.m. It’s just one long sequence of events, and, of course, your adrenaline is pumped up. The Swedes really know how to do things right.

We keep the medal in a safety deposit box at the bank. And we have a replica. We never take it out and look at it, but we’ve got it at home.

When it was announced, the prize was $1.2 million. But the Swedish krona suddenly dropped 20% and I lost $200,000. We put the money in some investments. We probably could have chosen better, but that’s not our focus. Our needs are relatively small.

It’s nice to have the prize. That’s a good feeling. Some people will ask you, ‘What is it like to have the prize?’ But most people don’t bring it up, and you never know whether they know or they don’t know. In a way, it doesn’t really matter. When you go someplace, and they’re treating you very well, you’re sometimes concerned that they’re treating you well because of the prize. It’s fine to be treated well, but still it’s better to be treated well because you should be treated well.

It causes some confusion at various levels. I received a plaque from the governor of California, Pete Wilson, congratulating me for being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Chemistry. People said I should’ve kept it, but I sent it back to him with a note explaining that it wasn’t a peace prize. Maybe I should have kept it because it’s kind of symptomatic of a general lack of understanding about Nobel Prizes.

I get asked for autographs. I heard about one Nobel laureate who got mad because another laureate’s autograph was selling for more on the Web. I think the recognition doesn’t throw me off. I existed many years before there was that kind of recognition. Maybe it would have been different if it had come when I was younger. I was delighted to get it, but I’d gone many years without having it. I’d developed a working pattern, and that wasn’t going to change.

My colleagues certainly don’t treat me any differently. The work I did has been standard textbook material for a long time, so they already knew about me.

The biggest difference is that it’s made me work a lot harder. There’s just all these invitations and questionnaires you get with the prize. Of course, you’re no more knowledgeable after the prize than before. You get asked about all sorts of issues you don’t know much about, just because you’ve got a Nobel. You’re trying to answer them and accept some invitations and still get your work done.

One recognizes that, to some extent, there’s luck involved that you managed to land on something that’s really interesting. But sometimes there are little boosts that make you feel pretty good. Like I finally cracked a certain geochemistry problem the other day. But you never know what’s going to happen. The main thing is just try to work on problems that are interesting to you.

From time to time one wonders, has one done one’s best work? But that’s independent of the prize. I just like to try to get on with it.