Roy McWeeny

Roy McWeeny(19 May 1924 – 29 April 2021) was a British academic physicist and chemist.

McWeeny was born inBradford,Yorkshirein May 1924. His first degree was in physics from theUniversity of Leeds.He then obtained a D.Phil. inmathematical physicsand quantum theory under the supervision ofCharles Coulsonat theMathematical Institute, University of Oxford.

From 1948 to 1957 he was lecturer inphysical chemistryat King's College,University of Durham(King's College is now theUniversity of Newcastle upon Tyne). From 1957 to 1965 he was at theUniversity of Keelerising to Professor ofTheoretical PhysicsandTheoretical Chemistry.From 1966 to 1982 he was Professor ofTheoretical Chemistryat theUniversity of Sheffield.In 1982 he moved to theUniversity of Pisa,Italywhere he remained anEmeritus Professoruntil his death.

In 1996 a celebratoryfestschriftvolume was published in his honour containing original papers by 132 scientists from 19 countries.He was awarded the 2006 Spiers Memorial Medal by the Faraday Division of theRoyal Society of Chemistryand the Medal Lecture, "Quantum chemistry: The first seventy years", was published inFaraday Discussions.He has served on the editorial board ofMolecular Physics,Chemical Physics LettersandInternational Journal of Quantum Chemistry.

He has written many scientific papers and seven books, of which perhaps the best known areCoulson's Valencein 1979, an update of the famous book byCharles Coulsonoriginally written in 1951, and the two editions ofMethods of Molecular Quantum Mechanics,(the first edition with B. T. Sutcliffe in 1969and the second edition alone in 1989). He wrote several chapters in the three volumes of theHandbook of Molecular Physics and Quantum Chemistry.In 1963 he wroteSymmetry: an introduction to group theory and its applications.

From 2002 he edited an open-access series ofBasic Books in Science,several of which he authored himself. He was also an elected member of theInternational Academy of Quantum Molecular Scienceand theEuropean Academy of Arts, Sciences and the Humanities.

McWeeny died inPisa,Italyin April 2021 at the age of 96.

References

• His International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science page

External links

• Interview at Early Ideas in the History of Quantum Chemistry.
• Involvement with Learning Development Institute
• His Learning Development Institute resume
• International Journal of Quantum Chemistry,(1996), Volume 60, 3. His autobiography.