Molecular structure

Abstract

About forty years ago, the Solvay Conferences were started in Belgium under the guiding influence of Peter Debye and other well‐known European scientists. Those conferences have been most valuable throughout the years in stimulating fundamental research in physics and in chemistry. When The Robert A. Welch Foundation was started some six years ago and obtained Prof. Debye as a member of its Scientific Advisory Board, one of the first things which he instigated was the valuable Welch Foundation Conferences. This year was the third such conference and the topic was “Molecular Structure”. There were a total of just seven papers and these were given by the following world‐famous scientists: G. P. Thomson (FRS, Nobel Laureate, master of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge University), H. B. G. Casimir (Royal Academy of Amsterdam, director of research at the Philips Company, Eindhoven), Gerhard Herzberg (director of Physics Division at the National Research Council in Canada), Manfred Eigen (professor at Göttingen University and director of a division of the Max Planck Institut), Henry Eyring (US National Academy and dean of the Graduate School of the University of Utah), E. Bright Wilson (US National Academy and Theodore W. Richards Professor at Harvard University), Charles H. Townes (US National Academy and professor of physics at Columbia University). The Conference lasted for three days, November 16, 17, and 18, 1959, and thus much of the valuable exchange of ideas and information came in the active discussion periods. The discussion leaders were the following: W. O. Baker, Jacob Bigeleisen, Lawrence O. Brockway, Bryce L. Crawford, Jr., Raymond M. Fuoss, Walter Gordy, Joseph O. Hirschfelder, H. A. Levy, F. A. Matsen, Joseph E. Mayer, Robert S. Mulliken, Lars Onsager, J. Th. G. Overbeek, and Charles P. Smyth. There were about 400 scientists who registered for the Conference and listened to the experts speak about the molecule. Let us repeat some of the high points of what was said.