Preface: Proceedings of the Seventh European Workshop on Quantum Systems in Chemistry and Physics

This special issue presents the Proceedings of the Seventh European Workshop on Quantum Systems in Chemistry and Physics (QSCP VII) with emphasis on innovative theory and its application, together with the development of novel computational methods. The Workshop was held September 10–15, 2002, in the Časta Papiernička Conference Center, a superbly equipped facility of the Office of the National Council of the Slovak Republic, which is located amidst the Forest of Carpathy in the Little Carpathians, the foothills of the Carpathian mountains, less than an hour's drive from Bratislava, capital of Slovakia. Having the Seventh European Workshop in Časta Papiernička was not only a manifestation of both the current and past strong interest and a remarkable progress in quantum theory of molecular electronic structure and its practical applications in Slovakia, but also a celebration of an important anniversary of a trio of well-known quantum chemists, who stood at the cradle of the field of quantum chemistry in Slovakia, and who happened to celebrate their sixtieth birthday in 2002. These pioneers, who were also primarily responsible for the organization of the Workshop, are Professor Petr Čársky, currently Director of the J. Heyrovský Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Professor Ivan Hubač, Professor of Chemical Physics in the Division of Chemical Physics of the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of the Comenius University in Bratislava, and Professor Miroslav (Miro) Urban, Professor of Chemical Physics in the Department of Physical Chemistry of the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the Comenius University. This was a great occasion to celebrate many years of hard work, often in arduous and burdensome conditions, which currently blossomed into the internationally recognized high stature of the Slovak quantum molecular science, as well as a long-standing friendship dating from the days of graduate studies of “the birthday boys.” An occasion most worthy of celebrating. The Seventh European Workshop was attended by about sixty participants and included over thirty plenary talks, organized in topical sessions, as well as more than 20 poster presentations, divided into two Poster Sessions. The topics included the electronic structure studies of potential energy surfaces and their exploitation in mode-selective chemistry, non adiabatic coupling, ro-vibrational spectroscopy, and van der Waals complexes, density functional theory and its exploitation in studies of molecular structures, reactivity and chemical reactions of various systems including DNA bases, spin catalysis in molecular oxygen activation, as well as various studies of relativistic effects. The methodological aspects dealt with massively parallel variational multireference configuration interaction codes as well as with various aspects of the many-body perturbation theory and coupled-cluster approaches. This annual series of workshops included those held previously in Sophia, Uppsala, Marly-le-Roi, Granada, Oxford, and Pisa. The next one will be in Spetses Island in Greece. Professor Aristides Mavridis is heading the local arrangements. We wish to express our sincere gratitude to the Organizing and local Committees for their excellent organization and co-ordination of the Workshop, for providing a pleasant and stimulating millieu for an informal exchange of scientific ideas as well as a rich social program, including a visit of a renaisance fortified castle Červeny Kameň. The Workshop would be hardly possible without the material and financial support by Slovenské Elektrárne, the European Comission for Science, Research and Development (COST-D23 Action), and by the Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics of the Comenius University. The closing banquet dinner of the Workshop was also an occasion for a festive confering of a joint QSCP Promissing Scientist Prize of CMOA (Center de Mécanique Ondulatoire Appliquée) for “scientific and humane endeavour and achievement.” The 500 Euros Prize and the accompanying Diploma, inscribed with the CMOA logo “Fiat Lux” and motto “Science sans conscience n'est que ruine de l'ame” by François Rabelais, have been awarded to Marcin Hoffmann of the Chemistry Department of the A. Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland and to Alexander I. Kuleff of the Institute for Nuclear Research and Nuclear Energy of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in Sofia. Our sincere congratulations! Finally, we also wish to thank Professor Erkki Brändas for his perseverance in his painstaking job as a special Editor of these Proceedings.

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