Subject: Lists and Noble Prizes

From: "Dr. J. Phillip Bowen" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 4 Dec 1997 08:50:29 -0500 (EST)

Hello,

I saw Willie Cui's E-mail message regarding the omission of Professor
Norman L. Allingers name from the list.  This is extremely surprising and
most probably may be due to an inaccurate search.  It would be of interest
to know what search parameters were used to create the list.  In many
cases, Professor Allinger is not listed as the first author on his papers.
This is a practice that I personally use.  From personal experience, I
know that if you are not the first author listed various searchers will
not pick up your name.  Perhaps this is problem.

Professor Allinger has made an extraordinary impact through his pioneering
work in computational chemistry, especially molecular mechanics.  He has
been at the forefront of applications of computational chemistry from the
very beginning of the computer age. It is noteworthy that one of his
publications has been listed in Current Contents as a "Citation Classic"
("Conformational Analysis.  LXIX.  An Improved Force Field for the
Calculation of the Structures and Energies of Hydrocarbons") having been
cited in over 450 publications.  Also, another one of his papers
("Calculation of Molecular Structures and Energy by Force Field Methods
Advances in Physical Organic Chemistry, 13, V. Gold and D. Bethell,
Editors, Academic Press, 1976.) was chosen by the Citation Index  as one
of their most frequently cited papers. He is the founder and editor of the
Journal of Computational Chemistry.  According to the Citation Index, this
is a "core journal" in physical chemistry and chemical physics.  Moreover,
the Burkert and Allinger book "Molecular Mechanics" is widely recognized
as the authoritative treatment of molecular mechanics, and it seems to be
cited in almost every discussion of molecular mechanics.

How many research publications cite MM2 or MM3 or some program that is
based on the Allinger work?  

Lou Allinger is a colleague and friend.  He has been very influential in
my career like so many of us who began using MM1 or MM2.  He is a modest
person who does not court the spotlight -- unlike so many of us in
science.  He has made a significant impact in the field of computational
chemistry in terms of research, teaching, and helping to popularize the
subject.  While there are many theoreticians and computational chemists
that are deserving of significant recognition, Professor Norman L.
Allinger should be at the top of the list for a Noble Prize.  

Phil 
*********************************************************
J. Phillip Bowen, Ph.D.
Professor of Chemistry and Co-Director
Computational Center for Molecular Structure and Design
University of Georgia
Athens, Georgia  30602

Phone:  706-542-2054
FAX:	706-542-2673
EMAIL:	[email-masked]
********************************************************

On Wed, 3 Dec 1997, Willie Cui wrote:

> Armel,
> 
> I took a quick look of the list and surprised to find that Allinger, NL
> is not on the list. I know that his paper on MM2/MM3 are widely cited.
> 
> In my own experience, I found the work of Allinger, Pople J, and Dewar
> have most profound and practical impact on the modern computational
> chemistry. The amount of insight, work, and care that went into the
> three packages, MM2/MM3, Gaussian, and AMPAC/MOPAC, are just tremondous.
> It will be of great excitment that they get Nobel prize.
> It is not too late for Allinger and Pople yet.
> 
> 
> 
> Armel Le Bail wrote:
> > 
> > Willie Cui wrote:
> > 
> > >I share you respect to Prof. Dewar and feel the lost of him passing
> > >away.
> > >
> > >On your message, you raised a very import point that his contribution
> > >to chemistry worthy of the Nobel prize.  I am wondering if computational
> > >chemistry is overlooked by the Nobel prize committee.
> > 
> > You may look at the computational chemists performances and try to guess
> > the next Nobel with the ISI's 1000 Most Cited Chemists list :
> >         http://fluo.univ-lemans.fr:8001/1000chimistes.html
> > 
> > A kind of Pandora box...
> > 
> > Armel Le Bail - Universite du Maine - Laboratoire des Fluorures
> > CNRS UPRESA 6010 - Avenue O. Messiaen - 72085 Le Mans cedex 9 - France
> > Web : http://fluo.univ-lemans.fr:8001/
> > 
> > -------This is added Automatically by the Software--------
> > -- Original Sender Envelope Address: [email-masked]
> > -- Original Sender From: Address: [email-masked]
> > [email-masked]: Everybody | [email-masked]: Coordinator
> > [email-masked]: HELP CHEMISTRY or HELP SEARCH | Gopher: www.ccl.net 73
> > Anon. ftp: www.ccl.net   | [email-masked] -- archive search
> >              Web: http://www.ccl.net/chemistry.html
> 
> -- 
> Willie Cui			voice: 201-512-0486
> MicroSimulations		fax:   201-512-0489
> 478 Green Mountain Road		email: [email-masked]
> Mahwah, NJ 07430		URL:   http://www.microsimulations.com
> 
> -------This is added Automatically by the Software--------
> -- Original Sender Envelope Address: [email-masked]
> -- Original Sender From: Address: [email-masked]
> [email-masked]: Everybody | [email-masked]: Coordinator
> [email-masked]: HELP CHEMISTRY or HELP SEARCH | Gopher: www.ccl.net 73
> Anon. ftp: www.ccl.net   | [email-masked] -- archive search
>              Web: http://www.ccl.net/chemistry.html 
>