State of The Art of Molecular Electronic Structure Computations: Correlation Methods, Basis Sets and More, Volume 79

Born 15.03.1961 in Aberystwyth, GB. French mother and Scottish father who were French literature specialists at the University. One sister. Schooled at Ardwyn Grammar which became Penglais Comprehensive in Aberystwyth. Admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1978 to read Natural Sciences. Graduated in 1983 (MA). I had become interested in theoretical quantum chemistry. Leisure activities: Rugby, Theatre, Debate, Competitive Wine-tasting (Master of Wine). Obtained DPhil (in English) and DSc (Doctorat d’Etat-in French) doctorates by research after moving to the theoretical chemistry group in Nancy, France (1983). Began teaching in 1986. Moved to a permanent lecturer position in Caen in 1992. The stay in Nancy was devoted to methodology, including Green’s functions for electron transfer to metals from weakly interacting molecules. Caen explicitly involved catalysis. I became the first theoretician in a group, half of which worked closely with the petroleum industry and the half I was more directly associated with in Infra-red measurements to determine reaction intermediate structure. This was a very fruitful collaboration and by the time I was appointed to the chair of Theoretical Chemistry in Clermont (1998), two of my former students were able to take over the research and teaching. Presently, I am still in Clermont. In 2005, I moved to the Physics institute (Institut Pascal) to work on semi-conductor surfaces, in a set-up similar to that in Caen, with a majority of X-ray structure characterisation and some density functional theory and dynamics. The whole of 2003 and part of 2004 had been devoted to a visiting professor position in Tallahassee, Florida amid a very stimulating theoretical physics group. Since 2008, I have developed an expertise in Quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) simulations. The CNRS has supported this with a total of two full-time and one part time years of leave for research which lowed me to visit several QMC research teams, notably in Paris and Toulouse. This status includes 2017. I married a research biochemist from Clermont and we have two daughters.

Lorenzo Ugo Ancarani is at Université de Lorraine, Metz, France