On the occasion of the fourth International Conference on Industrial and Applied Mathematics!, we decided to organize a sequence of 4 minisymposia devoted to the mathematical aspects and the numerical aspects of Quantum Chemistry. Our goal was to bring together scientists from different communities, namely mathematicians, experts at numerical analysis and computer science, chemists, just to see whether this heterogeneous set of lecturers can produce a rather homogeneous presentation of the domain to an uninitiated audience. To the best of our knowledgde, nothing of this kind had never been tempted so far. It seemed to us that it was the good time for doing it, both . because the interest of applied mathematicians into the world of computational chemistry has exponentially increased in the past few years, and because the community of chemists feels more and more concerned with the numerical issues. Indeed, in the early years of Quantum Chemistry, the pioneers (Coulson, Mac Weeny, just to quote two of them) used to solve fundamental equations modelling toy systems which could be simply numerically handled in view of their very limited size. The true difficulty arose with the need to model larger systems while possibly taking into account their interaction with their environment. Hand calculations were no longer possible, and computing science came into the picture.

For each of 150 landmark papers in ab initio molecular electronic structure methods, the author provides a lucid commentary that focuses on methodology, rather than particular chemical problems. 1984 edition.

Until recently quantum chemical ab initio calculations were re stricted to atoms and very small molecules. As late as in 1960 Allen l and Karo stated : "Almost all of our ab initio experience derives from diatomic LCAO calculations ••• N and we have found in the litera ture "approximately eighty calculations, three-fourths of which are for diatomic molecules ••• There are approximately twenty ab initio calculations for molecules with more than two atoms, but there is a decided dividing line between the existing diatomic and polyatomic wave functions. Confidence in the satisfactory evaluation of the many -center two-electron integrals is very much less than for the diatom ic case". Among the noted twenty calculations, SiH was the largest 4 molecule treated. In most cases a minimal basis set was used and the many-center two-electron integrals were calculated in an approximate way. Under these circumstances the ab initio calculations could hard ly provide useful chemical information. It is therefore no wonder that the dominating role in the field of chemical applications was played by semiempirical and empirical methods. The situation changed essentially in the next decade. The problem of many-center integrals was solved, efficient and sophisticated computer programs were devel oped, basis sets suitable for a given type of problem were suggested, and, meanwhile, a considerable amount of results has been accumulated which serve as a valuable comparative material. The progress was of course inseparable from the development and availability of computers.

The Advances in Chemical Physics series provides the chemical physics and physical chemistry fields with a forum for critical, authoritative evaluations of advances in every area of the discipline. Filled with cutting-edge research reported in a cohesive manner not found elsewhere in the literature, each volume of the Advances in Chemical Physics series serves as the perfect supplement to any advanced graduate class devoted to the study of chemical physics.

The Advances in Chemical Physics series provides the chemical physics and physical chemistry fields with a forum for critical, authoritative evaluations of advances in every area of the discipline. Filled with cutting-edge research reported in a cohesive manner not found elsewhere in the literature, each volume of the Advances in Chemical Physics series serves as the perfect supplement to any advanced graduate class devoted to the study of chemical physics.