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Alexander Dalgarno

Dalgarno

Born January 5, 1928 in London, England.

Phillips Professor of Astronomy, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.

Email:adalgarno@cfa.harvard.edu
Web: external link

Fellow of the Royal Society (1972). Member of the Royal Irish Academy (1989). Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1968). International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science Annual Prize (1969). Hodgkins Gold Medal of the Smithsonian Institution (1977). Davisson-Germer Award of the American Physical Society (1980). William F. Meggers Award of the Optical Society of America (1986). Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1986). Spiers Memorial Medal of the Royal Society of Chemistry (1992). Fleming Award of the American Geophysical Union (1995).

Author of:

Over 500 papers on atomic and molecular physics, quantum chemistry, atmospheric physics and chemistry, astrophysics.

Important Contributions:

  • Perturbation theory : the interchange theorem : sum rules : coupled and time-dependent Hartree-Fock theory : the relativistic random phase approximation : variational representations of Green's functions : long-range forces.
  • Scattering theory : space fixed frame formulation of rotational excitation : adiabatic and diabatic theories : predissociation as a collision process : ultracold collisions.
  • Atmospheric Physics and Chemistry : electron temperature profiles : airglow and auroral processes : hot atom chemistry.
  • Astrophysics : interstellar chemistry : ultraviolet pumping of molecular hydrogen and shocks : intense field effects : charge transfer in plasmas : chemistry of the early Universe.