Born in 1913 in Dana (Vermillion County), Indiana, Marvin Carmack attended the University of Illinois and received an A.B. degree in Chemistry with honors in 1937. After completing both M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Organic Chemistry at the University of Michigan in 1940, where he studied carcinogenic hydrocarbons, Dr. Carmack became a research associate at the University of Illinois, working on the chemistry of Senicio and Crotolaria alkaloids.

Professor Carmack began teaching at the University of Pennsylvania in 1941 as the Towne Instructor in Chemistry. He became Professor of Chemistry in 1951. During World War II, Dr. Carmack worked on contract with the National Defense Research Committee on high explosives and later on anti-malarial agents. Following the war, he began extensive studies in the field of organic sulfur chemistry. Awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1949, he spent the year in Zurich, Switzerland. He later held a Fulbright Fellowship at the Commonwealth and Industrial Research Office in Australia.

In 1953, Dr. Carmack accepted a position at Indiana University as Professor of Chemistry. The offer of professorship arose after Carmack attended the First International Conference on Organic Sulfur Chemistry hosted by Indiana University. Impressed by the University's administration and after meeting with then-Chemistry Department chairman, Harry G. Day, Carmack decided to move back to his home state. He formally retired from Indiana University in 1978, although he continued to work and conduct research for several more years. Indeed, Dr. Carmack remained involved with the Indiana Association of Science, undertaking a research project in the early 1990s on George Hale, an Indiana scientist who helped to develop the explosive known as RDX. (George Hale's papers are also held by the IU Archives.)

Dr. Carmack's major research contributions focused on natural products and organosulfur chemistry. In the former area, his internationally recognized research detailed the chemistry of alkaloids and proof of structure of the active principle of Lithospernum Ruderale, the agent of fertility control used by the American Indians. His studies of organosulfur chemistry elucidated the spectral properties of sulfur compounds and the mechanism of the Willgerodt reaction.

In addition to academic work, Professor Carmack worked as a consultant to Abbott Laboratories, DuPont Company, and the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory. He was also a member of Phi lambda upsilon, the National Chemistry Honor Society, and Sigma Xi, a scientific research society.

Dr. Carmack died on July 6, 2010.