John Ross

John Ross (October 2, 1926 – February 18, 2017) was a scientist in physical chemistry and the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Professor of Chemistry at Stanford University.

Education and career Born in Vienna in 1926, Ross left Austria with his parents only days before the outbreak of World War II. They settled in New York, where he studied chemistry at Queens College (B.S. 1948), with a two-year interruption to serve in the Army from 1944 to 1946.

In his research at Stanford, Ross examined experimental and theoretical investigations in new approaches to the determination of complex reaction mechanisms, the formation of the thermodynamics and statistical mechanics of systems far from equilibrium, the chemical implementation of digital and parallel computers, and application of these studies to biological reaction mechanisms.

Honors and awards Member of the National Academy of Sciences, 1976; Irving Langmuir Award in Chemical Physics, American Chemical Society, 1992; Dean's Award for Distinguished Teaching, Stanford University, 1992–93; National Medal of Science, 1999; Peter Debye Award in Physical Chemistry, American Chemical Society, 2001; Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art, 1st class, 2002; ACS Theodore William Richards Medal, 2004