Family Trees and Trends

1970s and 1980s, and a leveling off in the 1990s is clearly evident. It must be emphasized that this figure underestimates the true level of activity in computational chemistry because many experimentalists have taken up computational chemistry during the past decade. 

There has been a significant increase in the number and duration of postdoctoral positions before taking up permanent positions. The average time spent doing postdoctoral research for the first 20 appointees in Table 2 is just under 2 years, while for the last 20 on the list the corresponding figure is about 4 years. 

A number of interesting scientific family trees may be deduced from Table 2. For example, Alain St-Amant and Rene Fournier can be traced back to Camille Sandorfy through Dennis Salahub. Mark Thachuk can be traced back to Bob Snider through Fred McCourt, and Peter Kusalik can be traced back to John Valleau through Gren Patey. 

In some cases it is difficult to complete the family trees in Table 2 because information is missing. Such omissions do not always indicate that the identity of the supervisor is unknown. John Valleau recounted to this author an amusing tale about his postdoctoral fellowship at the NRC in Ottawa. 

I had somehow become interested in ultrasonics and wished to set up some experimental activity in the field. I explained this, as far as I remember by mail to Bill Schneider (whom I knew quite well, having worked in his lab one summer), and the solution proposed was that I should be 

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