http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3096-1972
It is my pleasure to present this special issue celebrating the scientific career of André D. Bandrauk, following his 75th birthday celebration last year.
After having obtained a master's degree at MIT (USA) with W. R. Thorson, André completed his Ph.D. in 1968 at McMaster University (Canada), under the guidance of R. F. W. Bader. As a NATO postdoctoral fellow, he worked with C. A. Coulson and M. S. Child at Oxford University (UK), which led to one of his very first, and one of his most cited, papers published right here in Molecular Physics [19, 95–111 (1970)]. He moved to the Department of Chemistry at the Université de Sherbrooke (Canada) in 1970, where he is still today.
It is in Sherbrooke where I had my first contact with him, as a student in his Quantum Chemistry course, which would turn out to be a life-changing moment for me, a testament to both the subject matter and André's talent for teaching it. I was later able to work with him for my master's and Ph.D. degrees, the latter done conjointly under the guidance of Osman Atabek at the Université Paris-Sud (France), and I am indebted to both of them for their support as a fledgling scientist.
André is the author of some 500 scientific publications, spanning many areas of molecular physics, from molecular scattering to attosecond physics, with strong-field, laser–molecule interactions being his predominant research theme, and including work in related computational aspects. This diversity is reflected in the many topics covered by the articles collected herein. And while André is strictly a theoretician, his influence on experimentalists has always been important, as one can also see in this special issue.
I would like to thank those who have made this issue possible, the editorial board at Molecular Physics, in particular Tim Softley, and the people who have helped me with the administrative tasks related to this special issue, especially Polly Dyne Style and Praise Ann Catubay.
Finally, I am grateful to all the authors who have contributed to this special issue and wish André many more years of scientific discovery.