Deceased Members
Per-Olov Lowdin
(October 28, 1916 - October 6, 2000)
Graduate Research Professor of Chemistry and Physics, Emeritus, Per-Olov Lowdin, died on Oct. 6, 2000, at his Uppsala (Sweden) home with his family.
Per-Olov earned his Filosofie Doktor from Uppsala University
in 1948. He founded the Uppsala Quantum Chemistry Group in 1955 and began
the Quantum Theory Project at University of Florida in 1960. Shortly
thereafter he initiated the well-known Sanibel Symposia and Winter
Institutes. His legacy also includes widely-read papers on fermion
density matrices, perturbation theory, and fundamentals of quantum
and statistical mechanics plus the many students and post-doctoral
associates who studied with him.
Until the very last years of his life, he was an energetic and engaged researcher and teacher. None of us who worked with him will ever forget the enormous amount of activity nor the scope and range of it. "Getting a drink from a fire hydrant" may be a cliche' but in Per's case it was apt. At turns, he was charming, wiley, ingenious, visionary, exasperating but always extraordinary.
A Commemorative Celebration of Per's contributions to US Science and the development of Univ. Florida was held on Feb. 8, 2001. Presentations were by Robert A. Bryan and Harrison Shull. Prof. Linderberg gave a brief summary presentation at the Memorial Symposium in his honor held on Wednesday October 25 at the Auditorium Minus of Gustavianum Uppsala University.
Gifts in memory of Prof. Lowdin for support of lectures and scientific activities in the Quantum Theory Project can be made to the University of Florida Foundation (annotated "Lowdin Memorial") and sent to Ms. Judy Parker, QTP, Univ. of Florida, Box 118435, Gainesville, FL 32611-8435
Charles E. Reid
(November 17, 1917 - September 7, 2000)
Professor of Chemistry Emeritus Charles E. Reid died unexpectedly on Sept. 7, 2000. Charlie was one of the founding members of QTP. This fact is especially remarkable because previously he had been a successful bench chemist most noted for inventing reverse osmosis. His theoretical expertise was lower bounds to operators, approximants, and thermodynamics. He retired in 1986, at which point he rewrote his thermodynamics textbook and increased his efforts on environmental matters.
Michael C. Zerner
(January 31, 1940 - February 2, 2000)
After an eight-year struggle with cancer, Distinguished Professor of
Chemistry and Physics Michael C. Zerner died peacefully at North Florida
Hospice early on February 2, 2000. Mike was a creative, energetic, vibrant
member of QTP for more than 18 years, noted especially for the methods
and insights embodied in the code ZINDO. QTP has lost a marvelous scientist
and energetic colleague. A Symposium in Mike's memory was hosted in Gainesville
over the weekend of 16 - 18 November, 2000.
John C. Slater
(1900-1976)
