Włodzimierz Kołos (1928 - 1996) was a Polish

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a graduated scientist trained in the study of chemistry, or an officially enrolled student in the field. Chemists study the composition of ...

and

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

who was one of the founders of modern

quantum chemistry Quantum chemistry, also called molecular quantum mechanics, is a branch of physical chemistry focused on the application of quantum mechanics to chemical systems, particularly towards the quantum-mechanical calculation of electronic contributions ...

, and pioneered accurate calculations on the electronic structure of molecules.

Life and scientific work

Kołos was born on September 6, 1928, in

Pinsk Pinsk (; , ; ; ; ) is a city in Brest Region, Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Pinsk District, though it is administratively separated from the district. It is located in the historical region of Polesia, at the confluence of t ...

. He received his M.Sc. in chemistry in 1950 and began his academic career as an organic chemist. However, he was soon attracted to theoretical physics. He began his graduate studies in theoretical physics in 1951 and completed his thesis in only two years. The

University of Warsaw The University of Warsaw (, ) is a public university, public research university in Warsaw, Poland. Established on November 19, 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country, offering 37 different fields of study as well ...

and the

Polish Chemical Society The Polish Chemical Society () is a professional learned society of Polish chemists founded in 1919 to represent the interests of Polish chemists on the local, national and international levels. History The society was founded of 118 Charter Me ...

award the

Kołos Medal The Kołos Medal (Polish: ''Medal im. Włodzimierza Kołosa'') is a prestigious medal awarded every two years by the University of Warsaw and the Polish Chemical Society for distinction in theoretical or experimental physical chemistry. It was est ...

every two years to commemorate his life and career. Kołos is best known for his work on the theory of electron correlation in molecules. In 1958 he went the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

, at a time when powerful computers were first becoming available for scientific work. He developed a new computer program to solve the

Schrödinger equation The Schrödinger equation is a partial differential equation that governs the wave function of a non-relativistic quantum-mechanical system. Its discovery was a significant landmark in the development of quantum mechanics. It is named after E ...

for the hydrogen molecule to unprecedented accuracy. In the early 1960s, Kołos and Wolniewicz published a number of pioneering papers on the potential energy curves of the hydrogen molecule, including several corrections to the

Born–Oppenheimer approximation In quantum chemistry and molecular physics, the Born–Oppenheimer (BO) approximation is the assumption that the wave functions of atomic nuclei and electrons in a molecule can be treated separately, based on the fact that the nuclei are much h ...

, including adiabatic, non-adiabatic, and relativistic terms. One result attracted particular attention: the calculated dissociation energy disagreed with the best experimental data then available, from

Gerhard Herzberg Gerhard Heinrich Friedrich Otto Julius Herzberg, (; December 25, 1904 – March 3, 1999) was a German-Canadian pioneering physicist and physical chemist, who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1971, "for his contributions to the knowledge ...

’s group. A few years later Herzberg improved his experiment and obtained a new result that agreed with the theoretical prediction. This was the first time that quantum mechanical calculations on a molecule had proved more accurate than the best experiments. Herzberg himself emphasized the importance of this in his Nobel Prize lecture. Kołos established a strong research group in molecular quantum chemistry in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

, and made many other important contributions, particularly in the field of intermolecular forces. He made important contributions to the development of the symmetry-adapted perturbation theory of

intermolecular forces An intermolecular force (IMF; also secondary force) is the force that mediates interaction between molecules, including the electromagnetic forces of attraction or repulsion which act between atoms and other types of neighbouring particles (e.g. ...

and carried out pioneering studies on the nonadditivity of intermolecular forces. He was a member of the

Polish Academy of Sciences The Polish Academy of Sciences (, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society of distinguished scholars a ...

, the

International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science The International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science (IAQMS) is an international scientific learned society covering all applications of quantum theory to chemistry and chemical physics. It was created in Menton in 1967. The founding members we ...

and the

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of humanities, letters, law, and sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europe ...

Awards and recognition

* Sniadecki Medal * Copernicus Medal * Medal of the

Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, based in Jerusalem, was established in 1961 by the State of Israel to foster contact between Israeli scholars in the sciences and humanities and create a think tank for advising the government on res ...

Alexander von Humboldt Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 1769 – 6 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, natural history, naturalist, List of explorers, explorer, and proponent of Romanticism, Romantic philosophy and Romanticism ...

Award * Jurzykowski Prize * Swietoslawski Award * Annual Medal of the

Honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...

of the

Adam Mickiewicz University Adam is the name given in Genesis 1–5 to the first human. Adam is the first human-being aware of God, and features as such in various belief systems (including Judaism, Christianity, Gnosticism and Islam). According to Christianity, Adam si ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kolos, Wlodzimierz 1928 births 1996 deaths 20th-century Polish chemists Members of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science Computational chemists Theoretical chemists Members of Academia Europaea People from Pinsk People from Polesie Voivodeship