Biography of Martin Karplus

Martin Karplus (born 15 March 1930 in Vienna; died 28 December 2024 in Cambridge, Massachusetts) was an Austrian-American theoretical chemist. In 2013 he received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry together with Michael Levitt and Arieh Warshel for the development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems. His work helped make computer simulations a central tool of modern chemistry and molecular biology.

Childhood and emigration

Karplus was born in Vienna into a Jewish family with a strong scientific and medical tradition. After the Anschluss of Austria into Nazi Germany, the family fled to the United States in 1938. The flight was an early historical rupture in his life. In the United States, Karplus developed an interest in biology, chemistry and observation; later he connected that curiosity with mathematical and physical precision.

Training and early research

Karplus studied at Harvard College and received his doctorate at the California Institute of Technology under Linus Pauling. After a research stay in Oxford, he worked at the University of Illinois, later at Columbia and Harvard. During this period he dealt with magnetic resonance and theoretical methods for describing molecular structures. The Karplus equation named after him became an important tool for deriving spatial information about molecules from nuclear magnetic resonance data.

Computers as chemical tools

Karplus was among the researchers who used computers early for chemical questions. His work connected theoretical chemistry, physics and biology. Especially important were models that brought different levels of calculation together: quantum mechanics for the part of a system where bonds break or form, and classical mechanics for larger molecular surroundings. This made it possible to study processes that were too complex for hand calculation or simple models alone.

Nobel Prize

In 2013 Karplus received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry together with Michael Levitt and Arieh Warshel. The Nobel Foundation recognized their development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems. The award also marked a broader change: simulations were no longer seen merely as an auxiliary tool at the margins, but as an independent way to understand chemical reactions, proteins and biological molecules in motion.

Farewell

Martin Karplus died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on 28 December 2024. His biography connects flight from Europe, theoretical chemistry and the early use of computers in the natural sciences. His scientific work made clear that molecules must be understood not only as fixed structures, but as moving systems.