History of Theoretical Chemistry in Bonn

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE GROUP

1967
Chair in Theoretical Chemistry is established.

1967-70
The first professor was Karl-Heinz Hansen who came from the group of H.H. Hartmann in Frankfurt. During this times the field of Theoretical Chemistry was introduced in Bonn as a special branch for the chemistry diploma. He passed away in 1970.

1972
Sigrid D. Peyerimhoff¹ became his successor. Her experience in quantum chemical ab initio calculations, gained during her postdoctoral time with C.C.J. Roothaan and R.S. Mulliken in Chicago, with E. Davidson in Seattle and L.C. Allen in Princeton, attracted students and led to a rapid growth of the theoretical chemistry group. Because of her co-operations with research groups of various countries, Ph.D. students and postdocs were exchanged frequently in the spirit of international research.
W.H. Eugen Schwarz was the first who habilitated in Theoretical Chemistry at the University of Bonn. Title of thesis: "Röntgen-Absorptions-Spektroskopie an freien Molekülen". In 1976 he accepted an appointment as professor (C3) at the University of Siegen.

1982
Habilitation of Joachim Römelt. Title of thesis: "Die quantenmechanischee Behandlung von dreiatomigen, kollinearen Reaktionen in Delves Koordinaten". He joined later on the BAYER AG.

1986
The Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft granted a five-year position for a professorship (C3 Stiftungsgastprofessur Theoretische Chemie/ Theoretische Molekülphysik). Bernd A. Heß was appointed and strengthened the field of relativistic and heavy-element quantum chemistry within the group.

1989
Sigrid D. Peyerimhoff² was awarded the Gottfried-Wilhelm-Leibniz-Price. As contribution of the state NRW to the prize a permanent C3 position for Theoretical Chemistry was established at the University of Bonn.

1990
Bernd A. Heß was appointed to this C3 position. Miljenko Peric from Belgrade took the C3 position of the Stifterverband until 1991.

1991
Habilitation of Christel M. Marian³. Title of thesis: "Theoretische Spektroskopie zweiatomiger Übergangsmetallverbindungen". She introduced the calculations of transition metal spectra taking into account spin-orbit-coupling and rotational coupling effects.

1992
Habilitation of Bernd Engels⁴. Title of thesis: "Quantenchemische Berechnungen von magnetischen Hyperfeinkopplungskonstanten in Molekülen". He introduced the quantum mechanical treatment of hyperfine interactions which are prominent in ESR spectra, for example.

1997
Habilitation of Stefan Grimme⁵. Title of thesis: "Entwicklung und Anwendung quantenchemischer Verfahren zur Untersuchung organischer Moleküle". He contributed to the development and application of high-level quantum chemical methods to larger organic compounds in ground and electronically excited states.

1998/1999
Bernd A. Heß moved from the C3 position at Bonn to the theoretical chemistry chair at University of Nuremberg-Erlangen⁶ as successor to J. Ladik. Michael Dolg⁷ from the Max-Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems in Dresden accepted the C3 position at Bonn as successor to Bernd A. Heß. Helmut Dohmann⁸ became Professor of applied informatics at the Fachhochschule Fulda (1998).

1999/2001
Bernd Engels⁴ moved (1999) as professor (C3) in theoretical organic chemistry to the University of Würzburg⁹.
Stefan Grimme moved (2000) as professor (C4) for theoretical organic chemistry to the Institute for Organic Chemistry at Universität Münster¹⁰ as successor to M. Klessinger.
Christel Marian³ moved (2001) as professor (C4) for theoretical chemistry to the Institute for Theoretical Chemistry at Universität Düsseldorf as successor to W. Domcke.
Max Mühlhäuser moved as professor to the Fachhochschule/Management Center Innsbruck (Studiengangsleiter Verfahrens- und Umwelttechnik).
Christina Oligschläger¹¹ moved as professor for technical mathematics to the Fachhochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg in Rheinbach.

2002
Sigrid D. Peyerimhoff¹ retired in February. Horst Köppel¹² from Heidelberg served as substitute in the C4 position from April 2002 to September 2003. Michael Dolg¹³ moved as professor (C4) to the University of Cologne¹⁴ with the beginning of the summer term..

2003
Andreas Görling¹⁵ from Munich accepted the C3 position for theoretical chemistry as the successor to Michael Dolg¹⁶. Bernd A. Heß from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg accepted the C4 position for Theoretical Chemistry as the successor to Sigrid D. Peyerimhoff¹⁷ and moved to Bonn in October 2003.

2004
Bernd A. Heß passed away on July 17th, 2004. Andreas Görling¹⁵ moved as professor (C4) to the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg⁶ as successor to B. A. Heß. Frank Neese¹⁸ has temporary the C3 Professorship from Oktober 2004 until March 2005.

2004/2005
Substitutes in the C4 position were Markus Reiher¹⁹ (Aug. 2004 to March 2005) until he accepted a W2 professorship for theoretical chemistry at the University of Jena, and Thomas Bredow²⁰ until March 2006. The C3 position was temporarily taken by Frank Neese¹⁸ (WS 2004/2005), Guntram Rauhut²¹ (SS 2005) and Thomas Krüger (WS 2005/2006).

2006
Habilitation of Barbara Kirchner²². Title of thesis: "Theory of Complicated Liquids".
Frank Neese¹⁸ from the Max-Planck-Institut of Bioinorganic Chemistry at Mülheim accepted the W3 position (chair of Theoretical Chemistry) in April 2006. Thomas Bredow²⁰ from the University of Hannover accepts the W2 (previously C3) position in theoretical chemistry at the start of the summer term. This ends the rather long period in which both positions (chair in theoretical chemistry and C3 position) were vacant and taken only temporarily of for a short period of time.

2009
Frank Neese¹⁸ was awarded the Gottfried-Wilhelm-Leibniz-Price 2010.

2011
Frank Neese¹⁸ left the University of Bonn on June 30th, and and became director of the MPI Director of the Max-Planck-Institut for Bioinorganic Chemistry in Mülheim an der Ruhr. His successor is Stefan Grimme⁵ from the University of Münster since October 1st,.
The Theoretical Chemistry moved to the Beringstr. 4+6 and founded there the Mulliken Center for Theoretical Chemistry. As contribution of the University of Bonn a second permanent W3 position for Theoretical Chemistry was established.

2013
Barbara Kirchner²² from the University of Leipzig accepted a W3 position for Theoretical Chemistry.

2014
Stefan Grimme⁵ was awarded the Gottfried-Wilhelm-Leibniz-Price 2015.

2017
50th anniversary of Theoretical Chemistry in Bonn.

Report from the Generalanzeiger Bonn²³

2021
Habilitation of Oldamur Hollóczki. Title of thesis: "Sustainable and Environmental Chemistry from Multiscalar Theoretical Calculations".
Oldamur Hollóczki²⁴ accepted a position at the University of Debrecen, Hungary.