Quantum Chemistry qua Programming: Computers and the Cultures of Quantum Chemistry
Kostas Gavroglu, Ana M. N. Simões · The MIT Press eBooks · 2011
Two conferences, the first held in 1959 in Boulder, Colorado, and the second in 1970 in Bethesda, Maryland, heralded a new period in quantum chemistry: the use of computers. The 1959 conference focused on the potential of the computer as an indispensable tool for quantum chemists, while the 1970 conference highlighted the remarkable development of hardware and software and the critical role of quantum chemistry in the development of computer technology as well as its growing importance within chemistry. Two active European groups, one in Paris and one in Uppsala, emerged after the war that dramatically broadened the scope of quantum chemistry. The first was the Centre de Chimie Théorique de France established by Raymond Daudel, and the second was Per-Olov Löwdin’s group. This chapter discusses the work of both groups, the publication of textbooks on quantum chemistry, the 1951 Shelter Island Conference in New York, the 1953 Nikko Symposium in Japan, and the work of John Clarke Slater and his group on solid-state and molecular theory.