Modern Techniques in Computational Chemistry: MOTECC¿ -89

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In a way the MOTECC-89 project started in the early sixties at the IBM Research Laboratory in San Jose, California. The six years of post-doctoral research, first with Giulio Natta on conductive polymers, with Michael Kasha on spin-orbit effects, with Kenneth S. Pitzer on high temperature molecules and thermo­ dynamics and with R. S. Mulliken in the quantum chemistry of small molecules had demonstrated pragmatically the importance of a broad-based research and also let me taste some of the excitement to be derived from interdisciplinarity. Thus when I started to gather a department in the newly opened IBM Research Laboratory in San Jose, California, I purposely named it "Large Scale Scientific Computation Department, " avoiding reference to chemistry, physics, statistical mechanics or fluid dynamics, which were our main tasks. In the sixties interdisciplinarity was more and more recognized as a most important if not nec­ essary avenue to cope with the technical needs of our society. However, at that time interdisciplinarity was synonymous with "team work, " and true interdisciplinarity was a formidably difficult objective. Although I headed an excellent group of scientists with different backgrounds and there was much progress and creativity, still each one of us was more or less conducting his own research in his own field with occasional cross-field partnerships and with some of the computational techniques as our common base. Later, in 1974, I made a second attempt, this time starting a new department at the Donegani Institute, Montedison, in Novara, Italy.