A personal history of the Quantum Theory Project and the Sanibel meeting on the occasion of their fiftieth anniversary

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Acknowledgements

I am indebted to my faculty colleagues at QTP for some thirty years now, who have made most of those years pleasant. (You lose a day here and there.) Jack Sabin had one of the last surviving copies of the Longuet-Higgins parody. Sam Trickey's extensive library of past reports from QTP and Sanibel, probably the only complete set left, was essential in trying to get the dates right. Some might suggest burying the L-H parody but this would not be as objective, or interesting, an account. Similarly, Bob Parr's comment communicates aspects of Slater's personality, as he was perceived by some. Regarding the major disagreements between scientists, I believe it was Kissinger who said ‘the reason academic fights are so bloody is that the stakes are so low.’ I’m afraid that's true about most fights in our field. I also thank my wife, secretary, helper, confidant, guide, and traveling companion, Beverly. Thanks for the memories.

Rod Bartlett is the Graduate Research Professor at the Quantum Theory Project. His awards include the ACS award in Theoretical Chemistry (2007), the Schrödinger Medal of WATOC (2008), and the S. F. Boys and A. Rahman prize of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2009). He is the author of over 500 articles and book chapters, and is among the most cited chemists, listed on isihighlycited.com.

Notes

Notes

1. Millsaps prepared me very well for graduate school, as I was able to major in chemistry and mathematics and was required to achieve a satisfactory score on both those advanced sections of the GRE and to pass two oral exams to fulfill my degree requirements.

2. Similarly, the inner projection of the resolvent operator, R ₀ = (E ₀− H ₀)⁻¹ Q = | f ⟩⟨ f | E ₀ H ₀|f ⟩ ¹ ⟨ f | ⁻ is pervasive in perturbation theory, demonstrating that any basis can be used in perturbation theory, not just those that make the resolvent operator diagonal. This basic fact is too often lost on scientists even today.

3. Some may not be aware of the intense rivalry between the University of Florida and the University of Georgia when it comes to football. However, Florida has defeated Georgia in the ‘world's largest outdoor cocktail party’ in Jacksonville in 17 of the last 20 games, and hopefully we’ll add a couple of dozen more.