Samuel Francis (Frank) Boys (20 December 1911 – 16 October 1972) was a British

theoretical chemist Theoretical chemistry is the branch of chemistry which develops theoretical generalizations that are part of the theoretical arsenal of modern chemistry: for example, the concepts of chemical bonding, chemical reaction, valence, the surface ...

Education

Boys was born in

Pudsey Pudsey is a market town in the City of Leeds Borough in West Yorkshire, England. It is located midway between Bradford city centre and Leeds city centre. Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, it has a population of 22,408. History T ...

, Yorkshire, England. He was educated at the Grammar School in Pudsey and then at

Imperial College London Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...

. He graduated in Chemistry in 1932. He was awarded a PhD in 1937 from Cambridge for research conducted at Trinity College, supervised first by

Martin Lowry Thomas Martin Lowry (; 26 October 1874 – 2 November 1936) was an English physical chemist who developed the Brønsted–Lowry acid–base theory simultaneously with and independently of Johannes Nicolaus Brønsted and was a founder-member an ...

, and then, after Lowry's 1936 death, by

John Lennard-Jones Sir John Edward Lennard-Jones (27 October 1894 – 1 November 1954) was a British mathematician and professor of theoretical physics at the University of Bristol, and then of theoretical science at the University of Cambridge. He was an im ...

. His thesis was "The Quantum Theory of Optical Rotation".

Career

In 1938, Boys was appointed an Assistant Lecturer in

Mathematical Physics Mathematical physics refers to the development of mathematical methods for application to problems in physics. The '' Journal of Mathematical Physics'' defines the field as "the application of mathematics to problems in physics and the developme ...

at Queen's University Belfast. He spent the whole of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

working on explosives research with the Ministry of Supply at the Royal Arsenal,

Woolwich Woolwich () is a district in southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was maintained thr ...

, with Lennard-Jones as his supervisor. After the war, Boys accepted an ICI Fellowship at Imperial College, London. In 1949, he was appointed to a Lectureship in

theoretical chemistry Theoretical chemistry is the branch of chemistry which develops theoretical generalizations that are part of the theoretical arsenal of modern chemistry: for example, the concepts of chemical bonding, chemical reaction, valence, the surface o ...

at the University of Cambridge. He remained at Cambridge until his death. He was only elected to a Cambridge College Fellowship at University College, now

Wolfson College, Cambridge Wolfson College () is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. The majority of students at the college are postgraduates. The college also admits "mature" undergraduates (aged 21 and above), with around ...

, shortly before his death. Boys is best known for the introduction of

Gaussian orbital In computational chemistry and molecular physics, Gaussian orbitals (also known as Gaussian type orbitals, GTOs or Gaussians) are functions used as atomic orbitals in the LCAO method for the representation of electron orbitals in molecules and num ...

s into

ab initio ''Ab initio'' ( ) is a Latin term meaning "from the beginning" and is derived from the Latin ''ab'' ("from") + ''initio'', ablative singular of ''initium'' ("beginning"). Etymology Circa 1600, from Latin, literally "from the beginning", from ab ...

quantum chemistry. Almost all basis sets used in computational chemistry now employ these orbitals. Frank Boys was also one of the first scientists to use digital computers for calculations on polyatomic molecules. An International Conference, entitled "Molecular Quantum Mechanics: Methods and Applications" was held in memory of S. Francis Boys and in honour of Isaiah Shavitt in September 1995 at St Catharine's College, Cambridge.
The lost Boys of quantum chemistry
' by Dermot Martin, Chemistry World, 30 July 2010
The scientific contributions of S. F. Boys
' by Robert G. Parr,

International Journal of Quantum Chemistry The ''International Journal of Quantum Chemistry'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal publishing original, primary research and review articles on all aspects of quantum chemistry, including an expanded scope focusing on aspects of materials ...

, 21/27 January 1973

Awards and honours

Boys was a member of 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 ...

. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1972, a few months before his death.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Boys, S. Francis 1911 births 1972 deaths People from Pudsey Alumni of Imperial College London Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Fellows of University College, Cambridge English chemists Members of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science Fellows of the Royal Society Theoretical chemists Computational chemists Mathematical chemistry