Canadian Symposia on Theoretical Chemistry

J.D. Goddard and R.C. Mawhinney, Program and Abstracts 12th Canadian Symposium on Theoretical Chemistry, August 6-11, 1995, Fredericton, Canada, p. 80. 

Charles Coulson, 4, "A History of Quantum Theory and Applications in Chemistry," 12-page typescript of after-dinner speech given August 16, 1971, at the Fourth Canadian Symposium on Theoretical Chemistry,... 

At the Montreal symposium, it was decided to hold the third conference in the series in 1969 at the University of Toronto and to have the conference, like the Montreal meeting, organized by two cochairs from different institutions, a tradition that has been maintained by all subsequent symposia in the series. The Toronto symposium was organized by Richard Bader (McMaster University) and Imre Csizmadia (University of Toronto). Like for the first two symposia, the list of invited speakers included a large number of chemists from abroad. Despite its name, the Canadian Symposium on Theoretical Chemistry is an international conference. Typically about 70% of the invited speakers are from abroad and more than 60% of the participants are from 15 or more countries other than Canada. Attendance is generally in the range of 160-220 registrants. 

The fourth symposium, organized by Gulzari Malli (Simon Fraser University) and Bob Snider (University of British Columbia) was held in 1971 on UBC s beautiful campus in Vancouver. Plans for the fifth symposium in the nation s capital, Ottawa, were modified when the First International Congress of Quantum Chemistry was organized in 1973 in Menton, France. David Bishop (University of Ottawa) and Vedene Smith (Queen s University) organized the fifth symposium in Ottawa in 1974. The shift from a biennial to a triennial conference established a natural rotation between the American Conference on Theoretical Chemistry,18 the Canadian Symposium on Theoretical Chemistry, and the International Congress of Quantum Chemistry. This rotation has continued without interruption for more than two decades. 

As indicated in Table 1, the Canadian Symposia on Theoretical Chemistry (CSTC) have continued to flourish more than 30 years after the original conference organized by Fraser Birss and Serafin Fraga. Amid the splendid scenery of the Rockies, it was decided at the Seventh Canadian Symposium on Theoretical Chemistry in 1980 in Banff, Alberta, that the two cochairs should be chosen 6 years in advance. This policy has helped to facilitate future planning and to ensure the continuation of the strong traditions associated with the CSTC. Thus, at the symposium in 1995 in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Fred McCourt (University of Waterloo) and Jim Wright (Carleton University) were chosen to organize the fourteenth symposium in 2001, an auspicious date for computational chemistry. 

Figure 2 Andre Bandrauk, Roald Hoffmann, Gerhard Herzberg and Russell Boyd at the Eighth Canadian Symposium on Theoretical Chemistry in Halifax.

The 5 lifetime membership fee was levied to cover the roughly 300 cost of incorporation. At any one time, the board consists of the cochairs of the most recent Canadian Symposium on Theoretical Chemistry and the cochairs of the next two symposia. 

A. D. Bandrauk and R. J. Boyd,/. Phys. Chem., 88, 4787 (1984). Eighth Canadian Symposium on Theoretical Chemistry. 

This chapter s mention of the Second Canadian Symposium on Theoretical Chemistry and the hugely popular world s exposition, Expo 67, which were held contemporaneously in Montreal in the summer of 1967, brings back fond memories for one editor. The Canadian symposium was the first scientific conference that DBB ever attended. Although proudly bearing the same Scottish last name, the editor and author share no known familial relationship. 

Most work on the integral Eq. (3) has utilized an iterative method of Svartholm [4,5] for solving it. The integral equation was first applied to He and hJ by Roy McWeeny and Charles Coulson [6,7] during McWeeny s doctoral work. At the 5th Canadian Symposium on Theoretical Chemistry, Ottawa, 1974, McWeeny delivered a tribute to Coulson who had passed away in January of that year. In that lecture, McWeeny described how he felt when he was first assigned the project by Coulson ... 

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