The Meeting House Developments

During 1971 and 1972 there was much discussion in the Science Board of the SRC on the computational needs of theoretical physics and chemistry. It was the view of some that the way forward was to set up institutes researching these subjects and to concentrate the personnel and computing power at these institutes. Such an idea for theoretical chemistry institutes was floated by Brian Flowers (who was then Chairman of SRC) but it rather soon sank. An idea that seemed more buoyant was that of Meeting Houses whose origin lay probably with Prof. R. (Ron) Mason. He was until 1971 Professor at the University of Sheffield, when he went to the University of Sussex. From 1969 he was Chairman of the Chemistry Committee of the Science Board, and from 1972 to 1975 he was Chairman of the Science Board itself. He went on to be Chief Scientist at the Ministry of Defence, Sir Ronald Mason KCB, and to hold some important positions in public life. The fruition of his idea as far as computational chemistry is concerned begins with a memorandum by Jack Howlett to the Science Board in October 1972, which is worth quoting from rather extensively. Howlett wrote  

There would be an interval between (i) and (ii) whilst either a member of staff worked full-time on getting familiar with the subject or someone who was already knowledgeable was found who was willing to join the project for its duration. 

Having made... as good arrangements as we can, we and our collaborators start work. We should hope to be free of too much administrative control and reporting, but progress would be reported to the appropriate bodies-... -and to e 4 Wise Men (if I may refer to them thus) if, as one 

In ail this we have placed the Meeting House concept in the domain of the Science Board, but the idea has aroused interest among the other SRC Boards, notably the Engineering Board. 

In fact, the idea was taken up by the Engineering Board too, in the formation of what were eventually called Special Interest Groups, but it is the positive response of the Science Board that is of interest here and that led through the first meeting house project to the development of the Collaborative Computational Projects (CCP ). 

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