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Biography
Professor, born 1937; B.S. University of Chicago (1958);
M.S. University of Chicago (1959); Ph.D. Catholic University
of America (1964); Physical Chemist, National Bureau of Standards
(1961-64); Research Associate (1964-65), Assistant Director
(1965-68), Theoretical Chemistry Institute, University of
Wisconsin-Madison; Lecturer, Department of Chemistry, University
of Wisconsin-Madison (1966-68); Research Staff (1968-75),
Technical Planning Staff (1975-76), Manager (1976-78) IBM
Corporation; Director, National Resource for Computation in
Chemistry (1978-81); Associate Director, Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory (1978-81); Senior Fellow for Science and
Engineering and Assistant to the Director for Human Resource
Development, NSF (1995-96); U.S. National Committee IUPAC
(1976-79); Chemistry Advisory Panel, NSF (1981-83); Advanced
Scientific Computing Advisory Panel, NSF (1985-87); Editorial
Boards: Journal of Physical Chemistry (1979-81); International
Journal of Quantum Chemistry (1979-87); Journal of Computational
Chemistry (1979-87); Computer Physics Communications (1981-87);
Percy L. Julian Award (1979) and Outstanding Teacher Award
(1986) (NOBCChE); Member ACS ("Treasurer, Division of
Computers in Chemistry, 1974-77; Chairman, Division of Physical
Chemistry, 1979), APS (Fellow, 1984), Chairman, Division of
Chemical Physics (1986); NOBCChE, Board (1984-88); Sigma XI,
Board (1999-2000); AAAS (Fellow, 1991), Board (1993-97); Faculty
Senior Scientist, Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory (1981-), Department of Energy Advanced
Scientific Computing Advisory Committee (2000-); Committee
on the National Medal of Science (2000-2002).
Research Interests
Advances in basic theory and computational methods have
brought the study of molecular electronic structure to the
point where theory/computation play a central role in the
progress of the field.
Professor Lester's research efforts are focused on theoretical
studies of the electronic structure of molecules. Efforts
in the former area are directed to extending the powerful
quantum Monte Carlo method to the range of chemical problems
that form the traditional domain of quantum chemistry, and
beyond because of the capability of not imposing the Born-Oppenheimer
approximation. Research by the Lester group has confirmed
that highly accurate ground state and excited state energies
are attainable by the method. Properties other than the energy
including dipole and quadrupole moments as well as matrix
elements connecting different electronic states (oscillator
strengths and lifetimes) have been determined following algorithms
developed by his group.
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