Understanding Molecules ― Lectures on Chemistry for Physicists and Engineers

Chemistry is a subject that many students with differing goals have to tackle. This unique general chemistry textbook is tailored to more mathematically-oriented engineering or physics students. The authors emphasize the principles underlying chemistry rather than chemistry itself and the almost encyclopedic completeness appearing in a common textbook of general chemistry is sacrificed for an emphasis to these principles. Contained within 300 pages, it is suitable for a one-semester course for students who have a strong background in calculus. Over 200 problems with answers are provided so that the students can check their progress.

Franco Battaglia earned his PhD degree in chemical physics from the University of Rochester (New York, USA) under the supervision of Prof. T. F. George. He has been enrolled in several other research institutions: Max Planck Institut fur Stromungforschung (Gottingen, Germany), Universita di Roma “Tor Vergata” (Rome, Italy), State University of New York at Buffalo (Buffalo, NY), Universita della Basilicata (Potenza, Italy), Columbia University (New York, USA), and Universita di Roma Tre (Rome, Italy). At present he is at the Universita di Modena (Modena, Italy) as professor of chemical physics, in the Department of Engineering “Enzo Ferrari,” where he teaches chemistry to undergraduate students and chemical physics to graduate students. He has made research contributions in several areas of theoretical chemistry, such as: molecular scattering in the gas phase and on surfaces, electron-molecule scattering, Feynman diagrams, statistical thermodynamics of species adsorbed on surfaces, fundamentals in quantum theory, numerical techniques for determining Born-Oppenheimer electronic energy surfaces of diatomic molecules from spectroscopic data, tensor calculus, photon statistics in resonance fluorescence, and special relativity. Together with T. F. George, Professor Battaglia has published two books: Lecture Notes in Classical and Quantum Physics (Blackwell, Oxford, 1990) and Fundamentals in Chemical Physics (Kluwer, Dordrecht, NL, 1999). Finally, he has served the Italian Government as the Scientific Committee Director of the Italian Environmental Protection Agency.

Thomas F. George has been chancellor and professor of chemistry and physics at the University of Missouri–St. Louis since 2003. Prior to that, he was chancellor at the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point, provost at Washington State University, dean of science at SUNY-Buffalo, and promoted by age 29 to full professor of chemistry at the University of Rochester. He received his B.A. degree (Phi Beta Kappa) with a double major in chemistry and mathematics from Gettysburg College, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees at age 23 from Yale University, with postdoctoral appointments at MIT and UC-Berkeley.

Dr. George’s research specialty is chemical/materials/laser/nanophysics, including nanomedicine. He continues to be an active researcher with 790 papers, 7 authored and 18 edited books. His awards include the Marlow Medal from the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK), Medal of Honor from Gulf University for Science and Technology in Kuwait, and Diploma of Honour from Seinajoki University of Applied Sciences in Finland. He holds honorary doctorates from the University of Szeged in Hungary and Phranakhon Rajabhat University in Thailand, and he has been elected as a foreign member of the Korean Academy of Science and Technology. As a hobby, he plays jazz keyboard and has performed throughout the St. Louis region and overseas in Bosnia, Croatia, China, Hungary, Kuwait, Oman, Romania and Russian Siberia.

Tom has been married since 1970 to Dr. Barbara Harbach, Curators’ Distinguished Professor of Music, director of the School of Fine and Performing Arts, and director of Women in the Arts at the University of Missouri- St. Louis. They are the proud owners (actually, servants) of four cats – two tortoise females (Luna and Stella) and two younger, mischievous males (Jeremiah and Jarrett).