Visitors
Notable contributions to the intellectual
life of the PCL have been made and are being made, by academic visitors, and in
the case of the small band of theoretical chemists, their presence has been
crucial. First was Linus Pauling, who was Eastman Visiting Professor in 1948.
Pauling gave a remarkable course of lectures which led one to believe that
there was order to be found in what seemed at the time to be the impenetrable
forest of inorganic chemistry, and in which the following exchange took place:
Pauling `For our present purposes it will be convenient to take the valency of
iron as 5.66': Sidgwick, from the audience `Convenient to whom?'. Later came
Bright Wilson, who was a Guggenheim Fellow. Professor M. Calvin was George
Eastman Visiting Professor in 1968, and many other visitors have contributed.
The Hinshelwood Lectureships, commemorating
Sir Cyril, were established in 1979 through the generosity of the Goldsmiths'
Company (to whom Hinsh had left much of his estate) and of St Catherine's
College, which has linked the Lectureship with a Visiting Fellowship. The
Lecturer has been presented with a copy of Hinshelwood's book The Structure
of Physical Chemistry, (Clarendon Press, 1951) - although supplies will
will not last much longer. The scheme has been conspicuously successful as may
be imagined from the roll of Lecturers and their subjects which follows.
Professor R.S. Berry
(Chicago), 1980.
Thermodynamics
of finite-time processes, and, Non-rigid molecules and other clusters.
Professor R.B. Bernstein
(Columbia), 1980.
Chemical
dynamics via molecular beam and laser techniques.
Dr J.A. Barker (IBM, San
Jose), 1981.
Computational
and theoretical methods in classical and quantal statistical mechanics.
Professor R.N. Zare
(Stanford), 1982.
Lasers
in chemistry.
Professor R.M. Hochstrasser
(Pennsylvania), 1984.
An
introduction to laser spectroscopy.
Professor F.M. Richards
(Yale), 1985.
The
structure and function of proteins.
Professor B. Alder (Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory) 1986.
Computer
simulations.
Professor M. Quack (Zürich),
1988.
Molecular
spectra and molecular dynamics.
Professor W.A. Klemperer
(Harvard), 1989.
Molecular
beam spectroscopy.
Professor A. Pines
(Berkeley), 1990.
Magnetic
moments - lectures on modern NMR.
Professor J.W. White (ANU,
Canberra), 1991.
Neutron
scattering and the control of intermolecular self-assembly.
Professor A.H. Zewail
(California Institute of Technology), 1992
Dynamics
of chemical reactions on time-scales down to femto-seconds
Professor D. Chandler
(Berkeley), 1993
Classical
and quantal theory of liquids
Professor G. Somorjai
(Berkeley), 1994
Molecular
surface science and catalysis
Professor J. Jortner (Tel
Aviv), 1995
Dynamics
in large systems
Professor K.B. Eisenthal
(Columbia), 1996
Molecules
and molecular dynamics at liquid interfaces
Professor P. Wolynes
(Illinois), 1997
Protein
folding problems with solutions
Professor A. Bond (Monash),
1998
Broadening
electrochemical horizons
Professor R. Ernst (E.T.H.,
Zürich), 1999
Exploring
nature by nuclear magnetic resonance
There were no Hinshelwood
Lectures in 2000 since Professor Stuart Rice of Chicago spent part of the year
in the Laboratory as Newton-Abraham Professor and gave a course of lectures on
the Active control of molecular dynamics and related topics.
Sponsorship by the Goldsmiths' Company
ceased in 1990, and I.C.I. generously took over, provided funds for Professor
White, and gave the promise of support for three more years.
The PCL and the Department of Theoretical
Chemistry have also been happy to welcome Professor R.S. Berry on more than one
occasion, and in 1986/7 he spent some time in the PCL again, this time as
Newton-Abraham Visiting Professor, when he gave lectures on the topic of
independent-particle and collective behaviour in atoms and small molecules.
