[1] He is widely credited as the "father of molecular-scale electronics" thanks to his groundbreaking work with Arieh Aviram in 1974 that first envisioned how electronic circuit elements might be constructed from single molecules and how these circuits might behave.

In 1974, he and Arieh Aviram proposed the first unimolecular rectifier,[4] thus becoming pioneers in molecular electronics.

[5] During more than 45 years in the chemistry department at Northwestern University, Ratner was the inaugural Lawrence B. Dumas Distinguished University Professor, the Charles E. and Emma H. Morrison Professor in Chemistry, associate and interim dean of the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, Co-director of ISEN (Institute for Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern), recipient of the Northwestern Alumni Merit Award, and an eleven-time member of the Faculty Teaching Honor Roll.

[6][7][8][9] Ratner's major areas of research include nonlinear optical response properties of molecules; electron transfer and molecular electronics; quantum dynamics and relaxation in condensed phase; mean-field models for extended systems, including proteins and molecular assemblies; photonics in nanoscale systems; excitons in molecule-based photovoltaics and hybrid classical/quantum representations.

[1] He has published more than 1,000 papers in these fields[1][10][11] through international collaborations, particularly in Denmark, Israel and the Netherlands.