Richard P. Van Duyne, plasmonics pioneer

Abstract

Prof. Richard P. Van Duyne (Fig. 1), a National Academy of Sciences member who played a pivotal role in starting the field of plasmonics and promoting nanoscience, died on July 28, 2019, at the age of 73. Rick’s prominence as a great intellect and visionary is apparent by his tremendous academic success, including a host of academic awards, an impressive publication record, and generations of mentees working to live up to the potential he saw in them. While being elected to the National Academy of Sciences was Rick’s most coveted recognition, he was proud of all of the recognition he achieved in his long career, including an h-index of 125 and rising, the Earle K. Plyler Prize in Molecular Spectroscopy from the American Physical Society, the Charles N. Reilly Award from the Society for Electroanalytical Chemistry, and a 2017 Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship. Fig. 1. Rick Van Duyne was proud to be elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Image courtesy of Northwestern University. Rick’s primary contributions to science all stem from his interest in molecular plasmonics, which deals with the interactions of molecules with nanomaterials that support a surface plasmon resonance. Rick entered this field in the early 1970s with training in electrochemistry, and proved himself an early adopter in a number of creative endeavors, including applications in glucose sensing, food safety, art conservation, single-molecule detection, and photocatalysis. As a physical and analytical chemist, Rick’s primary contributions include a number of fundamental insights on the mechanism and applications of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), the development of nanoplasmonic substrates via nanosphere lithography, and extensions of molecular plasmonics into biosensing and submolecular resolution imaging. Rick’s journey with surface-enhanced spectroscopy began pretenure when he read a newly published paper in 1974. In that paper (1), “Raman spectra of pyridine adsorbed at a silver electrode,” … [↵][1]1To whom correspondence may be addressed. Email: chaynes{at}umn.edu. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1