Donald A. McQuarrie

Donald A. McQuarrie
Name	Donald A. McQuarrie
Birth date	1936
Death date	2014
Birth place	San Francisco, California
Nationality	American
Fields	Chemistry, Physical Chemistry, Theoretical Chemistry
Institutions	University of California, Berkeley; University of California, San Diego; University of Oxford
Alma mater	University of California, Berkeley; University of California, San Diego
Doctoral advisor	William A. Goddard III
Known for	Quantum chemistry, Computational methods, Gaussian basis sets
Awards	American Chemical Society Award in Theoretical Chemistry; American Academy of Arts and Sciences

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Donald A. McQuarrie

Donald A. McQuarrie was an American chemist noted for pioneering contributions to quantum chemistry and computational methods that influenced Molecular Orbital Theory, Hartree–Fock method, Configuration Interaction, Density Functional Theory, and computational packages. His textbooks and research shaped pedagogy and practice across institutions such as University of California, Berkeley, California Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and University of Cambridge. Colleagues and students linked his work to developments at laboratories including Bell Labs, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, and research centers across Princeton University and Harvard University.

Early life and education

Born in San Francisco, McQuarrie completed undergraduate and graduate studies at University of California, Berkeley and pursued doctoral research under advisors connected to William A. Goddard III and colleagues at California Institute of Technology. His formative years intersected with courses and seminars influenced by scholars from Linus Pauling's circle, interactions with researchers associated with Gilbert N. Lewis's legacy, and exposure to computational resources at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. During graduate training he engaged with topics tied to methods used at Yale University, University of Chicago, and Columbia University chemistry departments.

McQuarrie's academic appointments included faculty roles at University of California, San Diego, collaborative positions at University of California, Berkeley, visiting posts at University of Oxford, and sabbaticals aligned with projects at Harvard University and Princeton University. He collaborated with theorists and experimentalists from institutions such as Bell Labs, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and international centers including École Normale Supérieure, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, and ETH Zurich. His career connected to networks involving John Pople, Walter Kohn, Martin Karplus, Roald Hoffmann, Ahmed Zewail, Herbert A. Hauptman, and other leading figures in physical sciences.

McQuarrie authored foundational texts that clarified the mathematics of Quantum Mechanics, Statistical Mechanics, Thermodynamics, and their application to chemical systems, influencing curricula at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, California Institute of Technology, and University of Cambridge. He advanced practical implementations of Gaussian basis sets, improved approaches to Self-consistent field methods, and informed algorithms used in software developed at groups associated with Gaussian, Inc., Molpro, NWChem, Q-Chem, and GAMESS. His analyses interfaced with theoretical frameworks established by Paul Dirac, Erwin Schrödinger, P. A. M. Dirac, John von Neumann, and computational paradigms influenced by work at IBM Research, Xerox PARC, and AT&T Laboratories. McQuarrie's expositions influenced methods for calculating vibrational spectra, potential energy surfaces, transition state theory used by researchers at Royal Society of Chemistry, American Chemical Society, International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, and in studies connected to Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.

McQuarrie's recognitions included election to societies and awards associated with American Chemical Society, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and honors paralleling those from Royal Society of Chemistry, Institute of Physics, and national academies such as National Academy of Sciences. His textbooks received endorsements and citations in curricula at University of California, Yale University, Princeton University, Columbia University, and libraries of institutions including Library of Congress and university presses like Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press.

McQuarrie authored influential books and papers cited alongside works by Ira N. Levine, Atkins, P. W. Atkins, Frank Jensen, and Christopher Cramer. Notable texts include a comprehensive molecular quantum chemistry primer used in courses at University of California, Berkeley, advanced monographs referenced by researchers at Max Planck Society, and papers published in journals such as Journal of Chemical Physics, Journal of Physical Chemistry, Chemical Reviews, Accounts of Chemical Research, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. His writings have been indexed by databases and services including Chemical Abstracts Service, Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar, and cataloged by university libraries at Harvard University Library and Bodleian Library.

Category:American chemists Category:Computational chemists Category:20th-century chemists Category:1936 births Category:2014 deaths