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Portrait of Martin Karplus

Martin Karplus

Martin Karplus (born March 15, 1930, Vienna, Austria; died 2024), was an Austrian-born American theoretical chemist. Karplus's honours include Nobel Prize in Chemistry, honorary doctor of the University of Vienna and ACS Award for Computers in Chemical and Pharmaceutical Research.

Martin Karplus’s zodiac sign was Pisces, Chinese zodiac was Metal Horse, with Life Path 4 in numerology.

Your match with Martin

Free, no account, stays on this device. Add a birth time later.

Martin Karplus’s AsterNym identity

The Evergreen Explorer

Wood represents growth. Wood-led charts are associated with patience, adaptability and the drive to keep developing. Life Path 4 represents structure: foundations, systems and the patience to continue after the first enthusiasm fades.

Wood Day Master (BaZi) × mutable Sun × Life Path 4, on the physical plane.

How common is the name Martin in the U.S.?

#335

US rank in 2025

~317,037

Americans share it since 1880

1963

its peak year

In 1930, 2,322 American boys and 16 girls were registered Martin — 83rd among boys and 2,171st among girls on the SSA's list that year.

US Social Security Administration public records

What Martin’s name adds up to

Worked from the name as published, letter by letter.

11

Expression · sensing what is coming

5

Soul Urge · freedom

6

Personality · caring, responsible

The name opens on M (4) and closes on N (5). Two values tie for most repeated, 1 and 9: drive against empathy.

Pythagorean letter values · A=1 to I=9, then J=1 again

Martin’s lucky numbers, colours and stones

Traditional correspondences, calculated not chosen.

Lucky numbers

4 · 2 · 3 · 7

Lucky colours

White & Gold

Lucky day

Thursday

Direction

← West

Season

autumn

Stones

Aquamarine, Yellow Sapphire, Rutilated Quartz

Flower constellation

🌼 Daffodil · 🌸 Peony · 🤍 White Camellia

Sunlit yellow · Rose-gold · Silver

Eight Mansions · Kua number

Kua 6, trigram Qian 乾, West group. Best direction West, worst Southeast.

A different tradition from the Direction above, and a different question: feng shui reads it from the solar year 1930, which turns at Li Chun rather than at New Year, and from sex, which Wikidata records as male. Work out your own →

The record

What sets Martin apart

The Irving Langmuir Award in Chemical Physics came in 1987, when Martin Karplus was 57.

The schooling ran through Newton North High School and California Institute of Technology.

On Wikipedia the categories read Members of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science, Computational chemists and Academic staff of the University of Strasbourg.

Zhores Alferov shares the birth date exactly, so the chart below is nearly the same document for them both. What follows the chart is where they part.

Educated at
Newton North High School, California Institute of Technology and Harvard College
Awards
Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2013), Austrian Decoration for Science and Art (2016) and Irving Langmuir Award in Chemical Physics (1987)
Citizenship
United States and Austria
Languages
English
Wikipedia editions
55

What the chart says

Martin, according to the stars

Core essence

Martin feels everything, and it is the best and hardest thing about them. The core of Martin is imagination with a soft heart behind it: the daydream, the creative pull, the instinct that knows how someone is doing before they do. They absorb the mood of a room and give back something kinder. Their softness is not weakness, it is the whole point.

How Martin wants to be loved

Martin wants to be loved boldly. Venus in Aries falls fast, says so, and wants you to chase back. Grand gestures land, so does a fight followed by a proper make-up. What bores them is hesitation. Be direct, be a little brave about them, and keep the spark lit on purpose.

How Martin creates

How Martin makes things happen: they grow upward. A Yang Wood day master is the tree, the one with a direction and the patience to keep at it through a bad season. Martin builds in the open, wants to be useful, and is at their most creative when there is something to reach for. Bend rather than break is the lesson they learn a few times.

Instinct

Instinct: Martin is free-spirited, a Horse year, and their gut reaction is to run toward the new thing. Energetic, warm, popular, honest to a fault, and impossible to keep indoors. The Metal year sharpens it: principled, determined, clear about what is right.

Purpose

Purpose: Life Path 4 is the builder. Martin is here to make things that last, to put structure under other people's dreams, to be trusted with the real work. Loyal, practical, honest, and learning that the plan can bend without breaking.

Triggers

Triggers: being told "because that's how it's done." Mars in Aquarius fights for the idea, the group, the principle, rarely for themselves. Martin goes cool and distant rather than hot, and then does the surprising thing. Point them at a cause and they will rewrite the rules around it.

Computed from Martin's birth date. Working below.

Where Martin sits

Six lines

Martin’s dot comes from the chart; yours is where you put it.

Intimate circleWide network
Martin

You likely balance a tight inner circle with a wider orbit you dip into.

DeliberateSpontaneous
Martin

You likely weigh most decisions but can move fast when it matters.

PrivateExpressive
Martin

You likely share some feelings openly and keep others to yourself.

Cool off firstResolve immediately
Martin

You may need space before addressing conflict. Cooling off comes first.

PracticalVisionary
Martin

You likely balance practical steps with room to imagine further.

Gradual trustImmediate chemistry
Martin

You likely warm up at a pace that depends on the person and moment.

Tap each line where you sit.

All twelve of yours, from your birth date →

✦ A real star from their birth night

Dedicate a star to Martin Karplus

Three stars chosen from the real sky above Vienna on the night they were born. Choose the story that connects you.

Martin’s birth-night reference starTalithawhite · Ursa MajorTalitha, in Ursa Major. A white star, 87° above the horizon at 9 p.m. local time, the bright star nearest the zenith.Dedicate Talitha →The warmest lightArcturuswarm orange · BoötesArcturus, in Boötes. A warm orange star, 18.4° above the horizon at 9 p.m. local time, the warmest-toned bright star up that night.Dedicate Arcturus →

A 9 p.m. reference sky, not the birth minute. Dedications are commemorative and confer no ownership of stars.

The sky over Vienna that night

Computed for 48.21°N, 9 p.m. local sky.

At 9 p.m. the star closest to straight overhead at Vienna was Talitha, in Ursa Major, 87.0° up.

The brightest star above the horizon was Sirius in Canis Major, and 106 catalog stars were up in all.

From 48.2°N, Capella and Deneb never go below the horizon: they are circumpolar at this latitude.

Canopus, Rigil Kentaurus, Achernar, Hadar, Acrux, Mimosa and Toliman cannot be seen from Vienna at all: they sit past the −41.8° declination limit this latitude imposes.

The Moon was at full moon, 99% lit, and above the horizon, with the Sun 29° down.

The name and the places

Born in
Vienna, Austria

The death is recorded at Cambridge, Middlesex County in 2024.

No birth time is on record, so no astrocartography map can be drawn for Martin Karplus: the lines move about fifteen degrees of longitude an hour. Shared Places can still draw yours.

How unusual Martin's chart is

Chart pattern score

10 / 100 · Reassuringly normal

An AsterNym index built from stelliums, yods, grand crosses and chart shape. It is not a population percentile, and a high score is not a better chart. Without a birth time the houses are left out of it.

Score your own chart →

The quick version

Pisces Sun

Kind, porous, easily flooded.

Martin Karplus's Sun was in Pisces for the whole of March 15, 1930, so no birth time is needed to settle it.

What Pisces means →

Metal Horse

Bright, restless, warm.

Martin Karplus was born on March 15, 1930, which falls in a Metal Horse year of the Chinese calendar.

What the Horse means →

Life Path 4

Slow, solid, lasting.

Martin Karplus's birth date, March 15, 1930, reduces to Life Path 4 under the numerology method AsterNym uses.

What Life Path 4 means →

What stands out in Martin’s chart

Martin’s birth chart

Reference chart · birth time unknown

Positions are checked across the whole date. The Moon ranges from 25° to 10° Virgo or Libra depending on the hour.

AriesTaurusGeminiCancerLeoVirgoLibraScorpioSagittariusCapricornAquariusPisces123456789101112Moon faces off with Venus · Opposition, 0° orbMercury grinds against Jupiter · Square, 0.2° orbSaturn grinds against Uranus · Square, 0.4° orbJupiter opens doors for Uranus · Sextile, 1.1° orbMercury opens doors for Saturn · Sextile, 1.7° orbMars faces off with Neptune · Opposition, 3° orbMoon flows with Jupiter · Trine, 6.1° orbSun flows with Pluto · Trine, 6.6° orbSun in Pisces · 24°08′☉24°Moon in Libra · 3°11′☽3°Mercury in Pisces · 9°04′☿9°Venus in Aries · 3°08′♀3°Mars in Aquarius · 28°36′♂28°Jupiter in Gemini · 9°17′♃9°Saturn in Capricorn · 10°46′♄10°Uranus in Aries · 10°21′♅10°Neptune in Virgo · 1°37′ · retrograde♆℞1°Pluto in Cancer · 17°30′ · retrograde♇℞17°

No birth time, so the houses are a solar chart: the Sun’s sign counts as house 1.

Tap a planet, a sign, a house, an aspect line or an element to see what it means and what sits in it.
Lines drawn
Conjunction 0°
Sextile 60°
Square 90°
Trine 120°
Opposition 180°

Placements

Tap one to light it on the wheel.

The working: aspects, Chiron and the asteroids, dominant planets and configurationsshow

Aspects across every possible birth time

  • stableMoonoppositionVenus0.0° to 6.6° orb

    Martin’s feelings pull against their affections from across the wheel. A see-saw looking for balance, often played out through other people.

  • stableMercurysquareJupiter0.0° to 1.0° orb

    Martin’s mind grinds against their growth. The angle that irritates, and the one that teaches.

  • stableSaturnsquareUranus0.4° orb

    Martin’s discipline grinds against their need for freedom.

  • stableMercurysextileSaturn0.9° to 2.5° orb

  • stableJupitersextileUranus1.0° to 1.1° orb

  • stableMarsoppositionNeptune2.6° to 3.4° orb

  • stableVenusconjunctionUranus6.6° to 7.8° orb

  • stableSaturnoppositionPluto6.7° to 6.8° orb

  • possibleMoonoppositionUranusorb from 0.0° to 14.4° depending on birth time

  • possibleMoontrineJupiterorb from 0.1° to 13.3° depending on birth time

  • possibleMoonsquareSaturnorb from 0.5° to 14.8° depending on birth time

  • possibleSunoppositionMoonorb from 2.3° to 15.7° depending on birth time

Chart signature

Elements

  • Fire2 of 10
  • Earth2 of 10
  • Air3 of 10
  • Water3 of 10

Modalities

  • Cardinal5 of 10
  • Fixed1 of 10
  • Mutable4 of 10

Counted across the ten planets by sign.

Martin’s Chiron, Ceres, Eros, Hygiea and Lilith

What astrologers make of these five, at noon values.

  • ⚷ ChironTaurus 11°04′ (moves 0.05° over the day)

    centaur (2060) · the wound and what is learnt from it

  • ⚳ CeresGemini 12°59′ (moves 0.28° over the day)

    dwarf planet (1) · how a person nurtures and wants to be nurtured

  • ♡ ErosAquarius 23°23′ (moves 0.58° over the day)

    near-Earth asteroid (433) · what draws them and how they desire

  • ⚕ HygieaAries 24°51′ (moves 0.31° over the day)

    main-belt asteroid (10) · health, routine and what keeps them well

  • ⚸ Black Moon LilithAquarius 3°13′ (moves 0.11° over the day)

    mean lunar apogee · the part that refuses to be tamed

Aspects to the asteroids and Lilith

  • Black Moon Lilith sextile Venus 0.1°
  • Chiron trine Saturn 0.3°
  • Chiron sextile Mercury 2.0°
  • Ceres sextile Uranus 2.6°

Martin’s dominant planets

  1. 1. ♆ Neptune6 pts

    rules the Sun sign, Pisces; disposes Sun, Mercury; 1 major aspect

  2. 2. ♄ Saturn5 pts

    in its own sign, Capricorn; 3 major aspects

  3. 3. ☿ Mercury4 pts

    disposes Jupiter, Neptune; 2 major aspects

Configurations in Martin’s chart

No stellium, grand trine, T-square, grand cross, yod or kite — the common case.

Minor aspects

semi-sextile, semi-square, quintile, sesquiquadrate, biquintile, quincunx.

  • Neptune semi-square Pluto 0.9°
  • Mercury semi-sextile Uranus 1.3°
  • Sun quintile Saturn 1.4°
  • Venus quincunx Neptune 1.5°
  • Jupiter quincunx Saturn 1.5°

Born the same day as Martin

Zhores Alferov was born on March 15, 1930 too, the same date and the same year. With no birth time for any of them the chart is identical, not similar: the same Sun, the same pillars, the same Life Path. What the chart cannot reach is the birthplace. At 48.2°N, Vienna keeps Capella and Deneb above the horizon every night of the year. Same sky, different lives.

More people like Martin

Other chemists

Born in Austria

More charts like Martin’s

Fellow Pisces suns

All about Pisces →

Born in Horse years

Year of the Horse →

Also born on March 15

Fellow Yang Wood day masters

What a Day Master is →

Other Pisces Horse charts

Other Evergreen Explorers

The Evergreen Explorer explained →

Famous people with Life Path 4

Life Path numbers explained →

From the journal: Sect: day charts vs night charts · Why your Chinese sign might be wrong

Martin’s cards

Computed from March 15, 1930. Tap to flip.

Birth tarot card

The Fool

AsterNym identity card

The Evergreen Explorer

Western zodiac

Pisces

Chinese zodiac

Horse 午

Life Path

4 · Architect

♃ Ruled by Jupiter

Tin Sn

The working: BaZi pillarsshow

BaZi pillars

Day Master: yang Wood.

Year

庚

yang Metal

午

Horse

Fire

roots & early life

Month

己

yin Earth

卯

Rabbit

Wood

work & drive

Day

day master

甲

yang Wood

子

Rat

Water

you & partnership

Where this comes from, and how it is worked out

Martin’s birth date and birthplace come from Wikidata Q903471 (CC0), as do the occupations, works and awards above. With no documented birth time this chart is rated X on the Rodden scale, the astrological convention for how well evidenced a birth time is. The banner above lists what that leaves out. Entries are matched to Wikidata by entity id rather than by name, kept at day precision, and dropped where sources disagree on the date.

Tropical zodiac, whole-sign houses, modern rulers. Aspects on the western_v1 orb policy; minor ones at 1.5° to 2.5°, skipped where a major already holds. Minor bodies from JPL Horizons heliocentric vectors, Lilith as mean apogee. Dominance is an AsterNym score — rulerships, dispositors, aspect count — so other methods can name a different leader.

Portrait by Bengt Nyman, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The same Martin Karplus at Wikipedia.

Roster last reviewed September 10, 2026. The full method: how it works.

Traditional interpretations, not facts or predictions, and not endorsed by Martin Karplus.

Quick answers about Martin Karplus’s chart

What zodiac sign was Martin Karplus?
Martin Karplus was a Pisces: born March 15, 1930, which puts the Sun in Pisces for the whole of that day.
What was Martin Karplus's Chinese zodiac animal?
The Horse, with the Metal element, from the Chinese lunar year of the March 15, 1930 birth.
What was Martin Karplus's Life Path number?
Life Path 4, calculated in numerology.
What was Martin Karplus's Chiron sign?
Chiron in Taurus at 11°. Position from JPL Horizons.
Where was Martin Karplus's Black Moon Lilith?
Mean Black Moon Lilith in Aquarius at 3°. This is the mean lunar apogee; the osculating Lilith some tables use can sit up to 30° away.
What was Martin Karplus's dominant planet?
Neptune, on AsterNym's dominance score (6 points: rules the Sun sign, Pisces; disposes Sun, Mercury; 1 major aspect). Saturn is second and Mercury third. Other sites weight rulerships and aspects differently and can name a different leader.

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