Robert Ghorm
In Memoriam
One of the giants of theoretical chemistry , and a long-time member of our department , Professor Emeritus Robert Ghormley Parr , passed away on March 27 , after a brief illness .
Parr received an A . B . degree magna cum laude from Brown University in 1942 , and then entered the University of Minnesota , receiving a Ph . D . in physical chemistry in 1947 . He joined the faculty at Minnesota upon receiving his doctorate , and remained there one year . In 1948 he moved to the Carnegie Institute of Technology , now Carnegie Mellon University , in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania , becoming a full professor in 1957 . In 1962
Professor Parr was a pioneer the field of ab initio quantum chemistry since the 1950 ’ s . His book entitled Quantum Theory of Molecular Electronic Structure , Benjamin 1963 , was most influential at that time . Parr constructed the zero-differential overlap approximation and later , with Pariser and added by Pople , developed the influential Pariser-Parr-Pople , PPP , method . The PPP method was a landmark in the development of quantum chemistry and is still very widely used . In the early seventies , Parr had the vision to realize that density-functional theory , DFT , could very well turn out to be the method of choice for quantitative calculations on systems of chemical and biological interest , especially for those with large numbers of electrons . Parr had the foresight to begin his research in DFT long before it was as popular or as fashionable as it is today in the chemistry community . In fact , for years Parr was virtually the only chemist of his generation to pursue DFT . He had the courage to do this despite the fact that he was often criticized , and even ridiculed at times , for it .
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Professor Parr and his daughter Jeanne Lemkau at his 92nd birthday celebratory symposium
he moved to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore , Maryland , and in 1974 to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill , where he received appointment to an endowed professorship in 1990 and where he last taught .
Parr led the research community in the construction of approximate functionals for practical applications in chemistry . The Lee-Yang- Parr correlation energy functional , also known as the LYP functional , Phys . Rev . B 37 , 785 , 1988 , has been cited more than 48,000 times . The LYP functional played a most critical role in bringing density functional theory to its practical application in chemistry , which ultimately led to the award of the 1998 Nobel Prize in
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