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Mark S. Wrighton, Ph.D., was
elected the 14th Chancellor of
Washington University in St. Louis
in 1995, and serves as its chief
executive officer. In the years
following his appointment, the
University has made significant
progress in student quality,
campus improvements, resource
development, curriculum, and
international reputation. He
serves as chair of the Association
of American Universities and the
Business-Higher Education Forum. A
MacArthur Fellow, he is a
presidential appointee to the
National Science Board. At
over $600,000 a year, he is among
the highest paid university heads
in the United States.
[1] (In 1998-99 Wrighton had
the ninth-highest salary among
private school presidents,
according to
The Chronicle of Higher Education.
[Issue dated November 24, 2000])
Born in
Jacksonville, Florida in 1949,
Wrighton received his B.S. degree
with honors in chemistry from
Florida State University in
1969. While at
Florida State, he studied
under Professor Jack Saltiel and
upon graduation received the
Monsanto Chemistry Award for
outstanding research. He did his
graduate work at the
California Institute of Technology
(Caltech) under Professors Harry
B. Gray and George S. Hammond,
receiving his Ph.D. there in 1972.
His doctoral dissertation was on "Photoprocesses
in Metal-Containing Molecules." He
was named the first recipient of
the
Herbert Newby McCoy Award at
Caltech based on his research
accomplishments. He received an
Honorary Doctor of Science Degree
from the
University of West Florida in
1983 and the Distinguished Alumni
Award from Caltech in 1992. In
1995 he delivered Caltech's
commencement address. In 2002, he
was named an Honorary Professor at
Shandong University in
Jinan, China.
Wrighton started his career at
the
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT) in 1972 as
Assistant Professor of Chemistry.
He was appointed Associate
Professor in 1976 and Professor in
1977. From 1981 until 1989 he held
the Frederick G. Keyes Chair in
Chemistry. In 1989 he was
appointed the first holder of the
Ciba-Geigy Chair in Chemistry. He
was Head of the Department of
Chemistry from 1987-1990 and
became Provost of MIT in 1990, a
post he held until the summer of
1995.
Wrighton is the author or
co-author of more than 300
articles published in professional
and scholarly journals, and he
holds 14 patents. He has research
interests in the areas of
transition metal catalysis,
photochemistry, surface chemistry,
molecular electronics, and in
photoprocesses at electrodes.
Principal objectives of his
research have been to elucidate
the basic principles underlying
the conversion of solar energy to
chemical fuels and electricity, to
discern new catalysts and ways of
making them, to understand
chemistry at interfaces, and to
provide the knowledge base for
development of new
electro-chemical devices. Wrighton
has lectured widely on his
research work and has given more
than 40 named lectureships at
distinguished colleges and
universities in the United States
and other countries.
He was awarded an Alfred P.
Sloan Research Fellowship,
1974-1976, and was the recipient
of a Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Grant
in 1975-1980. The American
Chemical Society awarded him the
Pure Chemistry Award in 1981 and
the Award in Inorganic Chemistry
in 1988. He was awarded a
MacArthur Prize Fellowship in
1983. Also in 1983, he was awarded
the Gregory and Freda Halpern
Award in Photochemistry by the New
York Academy of Sciences and the
E. O. Lawrence Award by the United
States Department of Energy. In
1984 he was selected as the
recipient of the Fresenius Award
of Phi Lambda Upsilon. Wrighton's
teaching activities have been
rewarded with the MIT Chemistry
Department Graduate Teaching Award
in 1981 and the MIT School of
Science Teaching Prize in 1987.
About 70 individuals have received
the Ph.D. degree under his
supervision at MIT.
Wrighton was elected a Fellow
of the American Academy of Arts
and Sciences in 1988 and of the
American Association for the
Advancement of Science in 1986. In
2001, he was elected to membership
in the American Philosophical
Society. Wrighton has received
public recognition for his
research and educational
achievements in the print media.
In the September, 1980 issue of
Fortune he was profiled along
with eight other U.S. scientists
under age 40, highlighting his
efforts in duplicating
photosynthesis. In 1984,
Science Digest included him as
one of America's brightest
scientists under age 40, and in
1985 named him one of America's
top 100 innovators of the year.
U.S. News and World Report
featured Wrighton in a February,
1988 cover story on "The New
American Establishment," and in
Business Weeks 1989 special
issue on "Innovation in America"
his work on molecular electronics
was profiled and he was included
as one of the ten innovators in
science. He was included in
Esquires 1989 Register along
with 38 other men and women "who
are making America a smarter,
healthier, wealthier, safer,
livelier, prettier, all around
more interesting place to live."
He was named "Humanitarian of the
Year 2000" by the Arthritis
Foundation's Eastern Missouri
Chapter.
