Faculty Directory
Laurence Marks

Professor Emeritus of Materials Science and Engineering

Contact

2220 Campus Drive
Cook Hall 2036
Evanston, IL 60208

Email Laurence Marks

Website

The Marks Research Group

Departments

Materials Science and Engineering

Affiliations

PhD Program in Applied Physics

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Education

Ph.D. University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England

Research student, Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, England

B.A. University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England


Research Interests

Professor Laurence D. Marks, Ph.D. is a Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University. His most highly cited work is the discovery of a type of nanoparticle which has become known as the Marks Decahedron. He pioneered the use of HREM to study the structure of nanoparticles, the use of direct methods for surfaces with either electron or x-ray diffraction data, in-situ methods for tribology inside electron microscopes, fast methods of obtaining optical and structural measurements from single nanoparticles and most recently a new class of fixed-point algorithms for DFT calculations. His research interests include transmission electron microscopy, density functional theory methods, direct methods for inversion of diffraction data, surface science particularly of oxides, tribology and hip replacements as well as nanoparticle structure, growth and corrosion, with a recent addition of flexoelectricity and triboelectricity. He is the author or co-author of more than 400 refereed publications. He tries to teach his students to follow the science, not the electron.



Significant Recognition

  • ICSOS Surface Structure Prize, 2017
  • Warren Award of the American Crystallographic Association, 2015
  • Astor Lectureship, 2015
  • Sloan Foundation Fellowship, 1987
  • Burton Medal from the Electron Microscopy Society of America for achievements in electron microscopy by a young researcher, 1989
  • Fellow, American Physical Society, 2002

Selected Publications

1. Olson, K.P. and L.D. Marks, What Puts the "Tribo" in Triboelectricity? Nano Lett, 2024. 24(39): p. 12299-12306 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.4c03656.

2. Blaha, P., et al., WIEN2k: An APW+lo program for calculating the properties of solids. The Journal of Chemical Physics, 2020. 152(7): p. 074101 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5143061.

3. Mizzi, C.A., A.Y.W. Lin, and L.D. Marks, Does Flexoelectricity Drive Triboelectricity? Phys Rev Lett, 2019. 123(11): p. 116103 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.116103.

4. Yu, X.X., et al., Nonequilibrium Solute Capture in Passivating Oxide Films. Phys Rev Lett, 2018. 121(14): p. 145701 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.145701.

5. Andersen, T.K., D.D. Fong, and L.D. Marks, Pauling's rules for oxide surfaces. Surface Science Reports, 2018. 73(5): p. 213-232 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.surfrep.2018.08.001.

6. Marks, L.D. and L. Peng, Nanoparticle shape, thermodynamics and kinetics. J Phys Condens Matter, 2016. 28(5): p. 053001 https://doi.org/10.1088/0953-8984/28/5/053001.

7. Ding, K., et al., Identification of active sites in CO oxidation and water-gas shift over supported Pt catalysts. Science, 2015. 350(6257): p. 189-92 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aac6368.

8. Lin, Y., et al., Synthesis-dependent atomic surface structures of oxide nanoparticles. Phys Rev Lett, 2013. 111(15): p. 156101 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.156101.

9. Liao, Y., et al., Graphitic tribological layers in metal-on-metal hip replacements. Science, 2011. 334(6063): p. 1687-90 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1213902.

10. Erdman, N., et al., The structure and chemistry of the TiO(2)-rich surface of SrTiO(3) (001). Nature, 2002. 419(6902): p. 55-8 https://doi.org/10.1038/nature01010.

11. Marks, L.D. and D.J. Smith, Direct Surface Imaging in Small Metal Particles. Nature, 1983. 303(5915): p. 316-317 https://doi.org/10.1038/303316a0.

12. Marks, L.D. and A. Howie, Multiply-Twinned Particles in Silver Catalysts. Nature, 1979. 282(5735): p. 196-198 https://doi.org/10.1038/282196a0.