On October 2, 2026 the Mark S. Wrighton Innovation Fund was established in honor of Mark S. Wrighton and his remarkable legacy at MIT.
Gifts from Wrighton Group alumni established the endowed fund, which enables the MIT Department of Chemistry to support the research of graduate students in chemistry.
A Celebration Reception was held on October 2, 2026 in the MIT Bush Room, welcoming more than 75 MIT alumni, friends, and faculty. Class of 1942 Professor of Chemistry and Department Head Matthew D. Shoulders, delivered welcome remarks and MIT President Sally Kornbluth shared thoughts on and appreciation for Wrighton’s career at MIT and years of service to the MIT Corporation.
“We in MIT Chemistry are enormously proud of the amazing career Mark has had,” said Shoulders. “Mark pursued a game-changing research program at the interface of chemistry, materials, and electronics. He is widely known as the father of molecular electronics–he pioneered interfacial photochemistry at the interfaces of semiconductors, chemistry that is now fundamental to many chemical processes.”
Dr. Timothy Oyer (SM ’91), one of the Wrighton Group alumni, was instrumental in the effort to honor Wrighton. Oyer shared, “Mark earned a special level of respect from his students and postdocs for driving research at a key intersection of diverse areas of science and engineering, his unique sense of urgency and purpose, and his inspirational leadership skills. When the idea of this weekend’s event, coupled with the Innovation Fund was first floated, enthusiasm was immediate and widespread among Mark’s group which had worked together so many years ago, and whose members’ careers had benefitted immensely from working under Mark, at MIT.”
To mark the occasion, Oyer and John D. MacArthur Professor of Chemistry Timothy Swager organized and hosted the Wrighton Research Group Symposium, a day-long event held on October 3, 2026 that included a series of lectures from alumni representing the span of 23 years of Wrighton’s tenure at MIT. The symposium was followed by a gala dinner at Batifol in Cambridge.
Mark S. Wrighton joined the MIT Department of Chemistry faculty in 1972.
An internationally recognized chemist whose pioneering research advanced inorganic photochemistry, solar energy conversion, and molecular electronics, Wrighton authored more than 300 scientific publications, held 16 patents, and supervised 70 doctoral students during his tenure at MIT.
He served as Head of the Department of Chemistry beginning in 1987 and became MIT Provost in 1990. His many honors include a MacArthur Fellowship, the MIT Chemistry Department Graduate Teaching Award, and the MIT School of Science Teaching Prize.