History of the Theory Sector of the Chemistry Department

Members of the Theoretical Sector have been at the forefront of discoveries in Theoretical Chemistry since the inception of the subject around 1930. We will confine our history to some of the people who have worked in the Sector.

Professor Sir John Lennard-Jones (FRS), one of the founding fathers of molecular orbital theory, was appointed as the John Humphrey Plummer Professor of Theoretical Chemistry in 1933. Our library of PhD theses commences with two (non PhD) volumes (1933, 1934) by C A Coulson (FRS). One of these on 'Some problems in Molecular Structure' acknowledges the 'kindness and interest of L-J'. An early visitor to the Sector was W G Penney (FRS). We also have the thesis (1937) of S F Boys (FRS), who was also a student of L-J, on 'Optical Rotation'. Boys was appointed in 1947 to a University Lectureship in the Department, where he remained until his death in 1972. Boys was a pioneer in recognizing the importance of computation in theoretical chemistry.

After the war, J A Pople (FRS, Nobel Laureate 1998) was a student of L-J, completing his thesis in 1950. Pople became a University Lecturer in the Mathematics Department. Other students included G G Hall, A C Hurley and J S Griffith.

L-J left Cambridge in 1953 (he died in 1954), and was succeeded by H Christopher Longuet-Higgins (FRS). During the time of HCL-H, L E Orgel, J N Murrell (FRS), A Carrington (FRS), A D Maclachlan (FRS) and A J Stone were appointed as Lecturers. The Department had many students and visitors in the 1950s and 1960s, including R K Nesbet, R G Parr, B J Alder, P Schofield, I Shavitt, I M Mills (FRS) C C J Roothaan, M S Child (FRS) and others, all of whom are well known for their contributions to theoretical and computational chemistry. There were also notable experimental contributions by sector members working with Alan Carrington.

A David Buckingham (FRS) succeeded HCL-H in 1969. His appointments included R Grice, N C Handy (FRS), N C Pyper, P A Madden (FRS), D C Clary (FRS), Peter Gill, and R D Amos. Ruth Lynden-Bell worked in the Sector for many years. Many students and visitors of this period now occupy senior academic positions throughout the UK.

ADB retired in 1997 and was succeeded by Jean-Pierre Hansen (IUF). JPH appointed Michiel Sprik, David Wales, and Ali Alavi.