In memory of Herbert W. Jones (1927–2002)

Abstract

This volume is dedicated to the memory of Herbert W. Jones, who devoted most of his research effort to developing methods for the evaluation of overlap and Coulomb integrals over Slater-type orbitals (STOs) for molecular calculations. STOs have long been considered to be a more desirable basis for electronic structure calculations than the ubiquitous Gaussian-type orbitals (GTOs) because they offer a better description of the important cusp properties. However, the evaluation of molecular integrals over STOs, or more generally exponential-type orbitals (ETOs), is a considerably more challenging problem than that using GTOs. HERBERT W. JONES Herb contributed greatly to the solution of the STO integral problem. He based his work on the Löwdin alpha functions. Together with one of us (C. A. Weatherford), he made considerable progress in development of the so-called C-matrix with all integer elements, which is amenable to algebraic manipulations using programs such as Mathematica. Herb also contributed to this field of research in other aspects. In 1980 he and Weatherford organized an international conference on the subject of ETO integral evaluations, which was held in Tallahassee, Florida. This meeting gathered most of the scientists in the world who are active in this field, and the proceedings of the conference were published in a book (ETO Multicenter Molecular Integrals; Eds. Weatherford, C. A., Jones, H. W., Eds.; Reidel, Dordrecht, 1980). We both greatly benefited from our collaboration with Herb. He was a valued friend and colleague. In addition to serving as our mentor and friend, he was a most stimulating intellectual colleague, well read in philosophy and willing to share his thoughts about the human place in the universe. In addition to his theoretical and computational research interests Herb was an experimentalist. He spent much of his last two years building a detector for magnetic monopoles. Herb made important contributions to the development of the physics curriculum at Florida A&M University. He served as chair of the department for 12 years and was instrumental in the development of the physics Ph.D. program at FAMU. He was admired and liked by colleagues in many parts of the world for his work, and for his unassuming and friendly personality. It is difficult to believe that he is gone.