Martin Quack is a German physical chemist and spectroscopist. Martin Quack started his chemistry studies at the Technical University of Darmstadt in 1966 and continued as fellow of the German Academic Exchange Service between 1969 and 1970 at the University of Grenoble and he obtained his diploma as chemist in 1971 at the University of Göttingen. In 1972 he moved to the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, where he obtained his doctoral degree in 1975 working with Jürgen Troe on the statistical theory of unimolecular and complex forming bimolecular reactions. In 1973 he attended a quantum chemistry summer school organized by Per-Olov Löwdin in Uppsala. From 1976 to 1977 he stayed as Max Kade fellow with William H. Miller at UC Berkeley. Subsequently, he moved to Göttingen and finished his habilitation there in 1978, he was appointed full professor at the University of Bonn in 1982. Since 1983 he has been professor of physical chemistry at ETH Zürich, where he served as head of the Laboratory of Physical Chemistry in 1986/1987, 1991/1992 and 2006/2007.

In 2005 he was Miller Visiting Research Professor at the University of Berkeley. In 2011 and 2012 he served as President of the German Bunsen Society for Physical Chemistry, his research group investigates the quantum dynamics and kinetics of molecules both theoretically and experimentally, with special emphasis on the dynamics of tunneling and parity violation in chiral molecules. Most notably their theoretical work has shown that the effect of parity violation is between one and two orders of magnitude larger than anticipated from earlier calculations and can be detected, in principle, as an energy difference between the ground states of enantiomers of chiral molecules by precision experiments of molecular physics, using the fundamentally new kinetic process of the time evolution of parity in isolated molecules.) He is an editor of the "Handbook of High Resolution Spectroscopy". 1982 Nernst-Haber-Bodenstein prize of the Bunsen Society for Physical Chemistry 1984 Klung Award of FU Berlin 1987 Bourke Lecturer of Royal Society of Chemistry 1988 Hinshelwood Lecturer and Christensen Fellow, Oxford 1991 Otto Bayer Award 2002 Paracelsus Award, Swiss Chemical Society 2006 Erwin Schrödinger Gold Medal, Innsbruck 2009 Honorary Doctorate, University of Göttingen 2012 August Wilhelm von Hofmann Medal 2012 QSCP medal of the CMOA He has been elected as a Fellow of the American Physical Society, Member of the Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as well as a corresponding member of Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities.

From 2002 to 2011 he had been member of the National Research Council of the Swiss National Science Foundation. In 2014 he was elected as member of the presidium of the German Academy of Leopoldina. Richard N. Zare Martin A. Suhm Roman M. Balabin Renato Zenobi Webpage at ETH Zürich BBAW Leopoldina webpage

On the Swahili Coast in southern Tanzania lie the ruins of a stone town known as Songo Mnara. The stone town was occupied from the 14th to 16th centuries. Songo Mnara has been recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, along with nearby stone town Kilwa Kisiwani. In total, archaeologists have found six mosques, four cemeteries, two dozen house blocks along with three enclosed open spaces on the island. Songo Mnara was constructed from mortar; this stonetown was built as one of many trade towns on the Indian Ocean. Archaeologists have been analyzing the layout of stone towns on the Swahili coast focusing on the relationship of the mosques and houses, in order to understand the role of the Swahili coast in Islamic culture, the functions of specific towns, the complex economic and ritual process of land ownership. Open spaces in towns were used for both functional purposes for social organization. Cemeteries are found both outside the town walls; the layout of Songo Mnara is typical of stone towns along the Swahili coast, though its wall is a unique feature.

Excavations have helped archaeologists to better understand ways of life at Songo Mnara. Many different areas have been excavated, including several of the more than 40 houses found surrounding the stone town. Trenches were dug in House 44, House 23 outside the houses, by a tomb, a well. Many different types of artifacts have been found, although few were recovered from within the excavated houses. Archaeologists mapped and recorded their finds. House 44 was an important area of research because of the complexity of the rooms and the fact that it was an individual's house; this house had excavations in each trench having a different number. There was a 1 x1 m test unit on the southwest room, dug because of the layers of ceramics; this excavation stopped. There was another located on the south-west side of the house, 4 x 2.25m. There were ceramics found in this room; the next room was in the center of the house, where they found plaster and coral among the layers of rubble. In this room, they stopped excavations at the plaster floor.

There were excavations done at entrance room, southeastern room, the back room of the house. The ceramics found at house 44 were from the 15th century. House 23 is located in the southwestern corner of Songo Mnara. Due to time constraints, this house only had samples taken from it instead of excavating it completely. A 4 x 1m unit was put in the courtyard of the house. During excavations, steps were uncovered, along with floor made out of coral bedrock; the next room was a central room. There was no plaster floor like what was found at House 44. Houses 31, 40, 34 were excavated during the 2011 field school at Songo Mnara. Preliminary research was done during a field school in 2009. There were six areas within the house that the archaeologists did during the 2009 excavations of the houses at Songo Mnara. Once again plaster floors were found at each house and artifacts were present. Ceramics were found at one of the front entrances tested to be showing a lot of activity; the back room, tested did not show the activity the front rooms did because they were too tidy compared to the front room.

During this field school, Kilwa-type coins were found under the floor. All the information found at these houses showed not only was the open space shared, but the houses were shared at the site. During the 2009 field school, there were excavations done on the open spaces of Songo Mnara. All the activity is laid out by the structures that make the private space separate from the public space; when looking at it archaeologically, there is an abundance of activity found in layers of ceramics and other artifacts. Coins were found in the open areas, thinking of all the open areas that are there as open areas are used for activities that area found to be outside. For the 2011 field school at Songo Mnara, the open area was looked at by shovel test pits, this time looking at what the soil could tell a person about the site. There were trenches dug, showing from the artifacts that the areas were related to household activities. During the 2011 field school, mosques were looked at, unlike in the 2009 field school at Songo Mnara.

The central mosque was looked at to understand Songo Mnara. Looking at the tombs, it was obvious people cared for those who were buried after they were first buried. Songo Mnara is an island built atop sandy subsoil, its proximity to the epicenter of Kilwa Kisiwani and its limited occupation make it a favorable area for geoarchaeological research. In 2011 soil samples from Songo Mnara were taken, geoarchaeologists conducted microstratigraphy chemical and phytolith analyses to differentiate what matter was deposited versus what was deposited by human residents. Two open spaces were tested: one at the north end of Songo Mnara, one at the south end. Samples were taken from rooms that contained fill, from the floors of the houses. In samples from house 44 a great number of palm phytoliths were found, not a natural occurrence; the research done at Songo Mnara's public space is to see how urban centers can help us understand layouts of cities. Within the wall around the town, there is a great deal of space that does not have any architecture, a public space.

Both graveyards and mosques are considered a public space. Archaeological testing and micromorphology techniques, are a new way of looking at public space. Seven different locations were looked at when doing this research: the western shoreline and areas associated with wattle and daub housing; these areas hold a large variety of artifacts associated wit