Political activist and chemist who made significant contributions towards the field of quantum chemistry.
Dr. Martin Gouterman was an American chemist from Philadelphia and a member of the LGBTQ+ community. Due to the treatment of the LGBTQ+ community at the time, Gouterman did not feel comfortable coming out as gay until late into his career. He received both his bachelor’s and doctorate from the University of Chicago and was a faculty member at Harvard University and then the University of Washington. He performed research into the photophysical properties of porphyrins for which he developed an orbital model now named after him. Gouterman was awarded the University of Washington Minority Science and Engineering Program Faculty Excellence Award and was an Elected Fellow of the American Physical Society for his research. He was also a prominent activist for equal rights and political issues at the time, such as ending the Vietnam War and promoting Israeli-Palestinian peace.