Martin Karplus is Theodore William Richards Professor of Chemistry Emeritus at Harvard University. He was born in Vienna and escaped to Switzerland shortly after Hitler's entrance into Austria. He was able to move with his parents and brother to the United States shortly after that. A graduate of Harvard College ’51, he received his Ph.D. in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology under two-time Nobel laureate Linus Pauling in 1953. Karplus started teaching at Harvard in 1966, where he continues to do research. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2013.
Although research and teaching have been his main focus, Karplus has traveled the world photographing people and places with a Leica IIIC, a gift from his parents when he completed his graduate studies. He has held numerous exhibitions of his photographs around the world. Karplus has also enjoyed a life-long interest in cooking and worked in some of the best restaurants in France and Spain.
