April 1, 2004

Obituary: John A. Pople

A memorial service was held Monday at the First United Methodist Church in Evanston for Nobel Laureate John A. Pople, Board of Trustees Professor of Chemistry. Mr. Pople died March 15 at his daughter’s home in Chicago.

Mr. Pople, 78, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1998, had been a member of the Northwestern faculty since 1986.

The Nobel Prize Committee honored Mr. Pople in 1998 for his pioneering contributions in developing methods that can be used for theoretical studies of the properties of molecules and the chemical processes in which they are involved, saying:

“John Pople is rewarded for developing computational methods making possible the theoretical study of molecules, their properties and how they act together in chemical reactions. These methods are based on the fundamental laws of quantum mechanics as defined by, among others, the physicist E. Schrödinger. A computer is fed with particulars of a molecule or a chemical reaction and the output is a description of the properties of that molecule or how a chemical reaction may take place. The result is often used to illustrate or explain the results of different kinds of experiment. Pople made his computational techniques easily accessible to researchers by designing the GAUSSIAN computer program. The first version was published in 1970. The program has since been developed and is now used by thousands of chemists in universities and commercial companies the world over.”

Mr. Pople also was awarded the Insignia of a Knight Commander of the Civil Division of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in the Queen’s 2003 New Year’s Honours List.

The award of a Knighthood recognized his extraordinary contribution in the field of chemistry.

Knight Commander (KBE) is a distinction within the realm of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, founded in 1917, initially to recognise service by civilians in the First World War. This award now honors civilians and service personnel for public service or outstanding contribution to society.

Mr. Pople received numerous other major awards for his work, including the Wolf Prize in 1992, an honor that is considered equivalent to the Nobel Prize; the American Chemical Society’s 1998 Award in Theoretical Chemistry; the 2002 Copley Medal from the Royal Society; and an honorary doctorate from Cambridge University in 2001.

He is survived by his daughter, Hilary Pople; three sons Adrian, Mark and Andrew Pople; and 11 grandchildren.