Pople John

Pople, John (Pople, John) (1925-2004), (USA). Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1998 (with W. Kohn).
Born October 31, 1925 in the resort town of Bern-on-Sea in Somerset, on the west coast of England, the son of a trader clothing into Keith Pople. The eldest of two brothers.

The brothers were sent to study at Bristol grammar school, when John was 10 years old. In 12 years he is so fond of mathematics, which was engaged in finding their own algebraic formulas. His successes were observed, and parents, consulting with teachers, decided to send him to Cambridge University to study mathematics. Pople began his studies at Trinity College in October 1943.

During the war should be in the army, but with part Pople peers from the university was on the university to work on military projects. Simultaneously, he studied and graduated from the first two stages of the University in 1946. Government no longer needs his services and he had to seek work. He was accepted at the Bristol aircraft company.

In 1947 he continued his studies at Cambridge. Listen to new courses on quantum mechanics by Paul Dirac (Nobel Prize winner in physics, . 1933) in Theoretical Chemistry from John Lennard-Jones (John Lennard-Jones), . on cosmology at the famous theoretical physicist Fred Hoyle, . the dynamics of fluids and statistical mechanics,
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This determined his choice, and in June 1948 Pople was engaged in theoretical chemistry at the Lennard-Jones. Next 10 years (1948-1958) he continued to work in Cambridge, in 1951 defended his thesis. He was engaged in theoretical analysis of the water molecule and its hydrogen bonds and the structure of liquid water in general. In 1952, formulated his general approach to the mathematization of chemistry, which determined the direction of his follow-up.

Together with Pariser and Parr, he developed the theory of Pople - Pariser - Parr - model systems consisting of one-electron atoms involved in the problems of physical chemistry. In 1958, Pople headed the new department of fundamental physics at the National Physical Laboratory near London. Academic 1961-1962 he held in the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, now part of Carnegie Mellon University. In 1964 he moved to Pittsburgh and took computer problems of theoretical chemistry. Since 1986, Pople professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

The method of molecular orbitals developed by Mulliken, an understanding of the electronic structure of molecules and the formation of chemical bonds. The invention of the computer scientists has provided a powerful tool, and Mulliken himself and his colleagues first created a computer program to decipher the structure of molecules.

Computerization of the processing of complex equations of quantum mechanics to quantitatively describe the structure of molecules and their chemical transformations become a necessity.

To this end, Pople created a theoretical model, in which through a series of increasingly sophisticated approximations were solved quantum mechanical equations describing the wave function in the Schrodinger equation. The model made it possible to control the accuracy of calculations. Method Pople became available to researchers through the developed computer program GAUSSIAN.

Now the methods of quantum mechanical calculations (for Pople and Kohn) is used to interpret the data in all fields of chemistry. Objective indicator widely used method of computer calculation of Pople is its citation index in 21 years, since 1981. He firmly holds the second place in the world by quoting. In its 176 publications for 1981-1997 chemists cited 14 044 times, and this meaning that many times they had enjoyed its development.

With the help of computer techniques to create new catalysts, drugs and polymeric materials. The correct choice of the active center of enzymes with the number of atoms of 20 to 60 can expect the mechanisms of its binding to metabolites (antimetabolites) and subsequent biochemical transformation of the substrate for the needs of Biochemistry, . Toxicology, . pharmacology and clinical medicine,
. The structure surrounding the active site of the enzyme protein part, describes a simpler. For example, calculated the protection mechanism of muscle myoglobin of carbon oxide poisoning. It turned out that this is achieved through the formation of hydrogen bond with one oxygen molecule from the amino acids of the protein myoglobin molecule, it can not happen with a molecule of CO.

In 1998, Pople, together with V. Kohn was awarded the Nobel Prize 'for the development of computer methods in quantum chemistry'.

Died March 15, 2004 in Chicago from liver cancer.