Introduction: Michael C. Zerner

Many friends, colleagues, and collaborators of Mike Zerner around the world had the idea that the occasion of Mike turning sixty was a great opportunity to honor him and pay tribute to his many contributions to theoretical chemistry and to chemistry in general by inviting scientists with close ties to him to submit articles to a special volume. With all this enthusiastic support it was an easy job for us to organize and edit this issue of the International Journal of Quantum Chemistry. The great variety of contributions reflects Mike's broad scientific interests and the many areas of research impacted by his work. Mike's curriculum vitae, published in this issue, gives an overview of his distinguished career. After earning his Ph.D. degree at Harvard University working with Martin Gouterman and after a couple of years in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam era reaching the rank of captain, Mike spent two years as an NIH postdoctoral fellow in the Quantum Chemistry Group at Uppsala University, Sweden. The influence of this experience and the fact that he married Anna has made Mike an honorary Swede. His teaching career started at the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada, where he rose to the rank of Professor. Some of the practical, applied aspects of his work came into play as consultant at the Eastman Kodak Company, an activity that produced eight patents. In 1982 Mike moved to the University of Florida and joined the Quantum Theory Project and the Chemistry Department as Professor of Chemistry and Physics. This started a very productive period in Mike's career. During his time at the University of Florida he has published over 160 articles, edited or co-edited over 30 books, graduated over 15 Ph.D. students, organized numerous conferences and workshops in the United States and abroad, and lectured at several international schools and institutes. In 1998 he was one of the very first faculty members to be promoted to Distinguished Professor, when this rank was instituted at the University of Florida. He spent longer and shorter periods as a visiting faculty member at institutions in the United States and elsewhere, including Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Nine extended visits to institutions in Munich and Miinster since 1986 testify a special attraction to Germany, and in 1992 he received the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt senior research award. Among all the different scientific matters to which Mike Zerner's name is attached, the program system ZINDO, which now is in use throughout the world, is perhaps the most famous. Reliable predictions about molecular electronic spectroscopy and molecular electronic structure in general for truly large systems or systems with heavy elements can hardly be undertaken today without the models of ZINDO. In recent years Mike has made important contributions to condensed phase chemistry, in particular, to the area of solvent effects, where his creative work on reaction field models and on mixed quantum/classical treatments is widely recognized. Mike is a sought-after seminar speaker and plenary lecturer at universities, conferences, and workshops throughout the world. He is one of the working editors of the International Journal of Quantum Chemistry and of the Advances in Quantum Chemistry, and he serves on the advisory editorial board of several journals. He has for several years running organized the lion share of the Sanibel Symposium program, and he serves on many departmental, college, and university committees. He had a 6-year term as Chair of the Chemistry Department—a time of important faculty appointments and genuine growth in the department. Those of us who work with Mike in science, in organizing workshops and conferences, or in other administrative or academic activities are all impressed by his energy and enthusiasm for whatever he undertakes. It is always fun to be around Mike. He has an appetite for life and for science that is contagious. All of us who are fortunate to have Mike as a colleague and friend wish him a very happy birthday. Ad multos annos!

Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.