Joachim Bargon - Böcker

The papers collected in this volume were presented at an international symposium on Computational Methods in Chemistry. This symposium was sponsored by IBM Germany and was held September 17-19, 1979, in Bad Neuenahr, West Germany. According to Graham Richards [Nature 278, 507 (1979)] the "Third Age of Quantum Chemistry" has started-;-where the results of quantum chemical calculations have become so accurate and reliable that they can guide the experimentalists in their search for the unknown. The particular example highlighted by Richards was the suc­ cessful prediction and subsequent identification of the relative energies, transition probabilities and geometries of the lowest triplet states of acetylene. The theoretical predictions were based chiefly upon the work of three groups: Kammer [Chern. Phys. Lett. ~, 529 (1970)] had made qualitatively correct predictions; Demoulin [Chern. Phys. 11, 329 (1975)] had calculated the potential energy curves for the two lowest triplet states (3 and 3 ) of B A acetylene; and Wetmore and Schaefer III [J. Chern. Phys. ~~ 1648 (1978)] had determined the geometries of the cis (3B and ~A ) and the trans (3B and 3A ) isomers of these two sta~es. Inua 2 2 guided search, Wendt, Hunziker and Hippler [J. Chern. PHys. 70, 4044 (1979)] succeeded in finding the predicted near infrared absorption of the cis triplet acetylene (no corresponding absorp­ tion for the trans form was found, which is in agreement with theory), and the resolved structure of the spectrum confirmed the predicted geometries conclusively.

The papers collected in this volume were presented at the International Symposium on Methods and Materials in Microelectronic Technology. This symposium was sponsored by IBM Germany, and it was held September 29 - October 1, 1982, in Bad Neuenahr, West Germany. The progress of semiconductor and microelectronic technology has become so rapid and the field so sophisticated that it is imperative to exchange the latest insight gained as frequently as it can be accomplished. In addition, it is peculiar for this field that the bulk of the investigations are carried out at industrial research and development laboratories, which makes some of the results less readily accessible. Because of these circumstances, the academic community, which among other things, is supposed to communicate the prog­ ress in this field to students of different disciplines, finds it rather difficult to stay properly informed. It was the intent of this IBM sponsored symposium to bring together key scientists from academic institutions, primarily from Europe, with principal investigators of the industrial scene. Accordingly, this symposium exposed technologists to scientists and vice versa. Scientific advances often lead directly to technological innovations. In turn, new technologies are often arrived at empirically and, because of that, are initially poorly understood. Scientific inquiry then attempts to probe these processes and phenomena in order to achieve a better understanding. Thus science and technology are intricately interconnected, and it is important that technical exchange between technolo­ gists and scientists is facilitated, since the problems are typically interdiscipli­ nary in nature.

This will be a must-have work for scientists and practitioners in any field related to modern chemical research. It will also be highly useful for many workers in industry who are required to keep up-to-date with the latest news in chemistry and applied chemistry. So much is covered here in critical review, from the present position of developing research to future trends, that this book will still be an indispensable text ten years from now.