Erich Hückel (1896-1980): From Physics to Quantum Chemistry

Emerging disciplines in the border zone between physics and chemistry have 1 attracted the attention of historians of science particularly in the last 20 years. 2 Quantum chemistry, as an offshoot of theoretical chemistry, has recently acquired 3 some importance in the history of chemistry. It is the product of close 1 Cf. Hiebert, E. : Discipline Identi cation in Chemistry and Physics, in: Science in Context, 9(2) (1996), 93–119; Nye, M. J. : Physics and Chemistry: Commensurate or Incommensurate Sciences? in: The Invention of Physical Science, Intersections of Mathematics, Theology and Natural Philosophy since the Seventeenth Century – Essays in Honor of Erwin N. Hiebert. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht 1992; From Chemical Philosophy to Theoretical Chemistry: Dynamics of Matter and Dynamics of Disciplines, 1800–1950. University of California Press, Berkeley 1994; Servos, J. W. : Physical Chemistry from Ostwald to Pauling, the Making of a Science in America. Princeton University Press, New Jersey 1990; Chemical Sciences in the 20th Century: Bridging Boundaries, edited by Carsten Reinhard. Wiley-VCH, Weinheim 2001 (incl. a comprehensive bibliography). 2 In an earlier article I point out that the term “quantum chemistry” [Quantenchemie] rst appeared in 1929. To my knowledge it was coined by the physicist Arthur Haas. Talks he had del- ered before the Viennese Chemico-Physical Society in the spring of 1929 are assembled in his book: Die Grundlagen der Quantenchemie: Eine Einleitung in vier Vorträge. It was published by the Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft in Leipzig.