S. Francis Boys

Samuel Francis Boys FRS (20 December 1911-16 October 1972) was born in Pudsey, Yorkshire, England. He was educated at the Grammar School in Pudsey and then at Imperial College, London. He graduated in Chemistry in 1932. He did his Ph.D. at Trinity College at Cambridge University, supervised first by Professor Martin Lowry, and then, after Lowry's death in 1936, by Sir John Lennard-Jones.

In 1938, Boys was appointed an Assistant Lecturer in Mathematical Physics at Queen’s University, Belfast. He spent the whole of the Second World War working on explosives research with the Ministry of Supply at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, 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 at Cambridge University. He remained at Cambridge until his death. He was only elected to a Cambridge College Fellowship at University College, now Wolfson College, shortly before his death.

Boys is best known for the introduction of Gaussian orbitals into ab initio 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.

Boys was a member of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1972, not long before his death.

References

C. A. Coulson, "Samuel Francis Boys. 1911-1972", Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, Vol. 19, (Dec., 1973), pp. 95–115.

Publications

• Boys, S. F.; Corner, J. (1949). "The Structure of the Reaction Zone in a Flame". Proc. R. Soc. [London], A 197 (1048): 90–106. doi:10.1098/rspa.1949.0052. 
• Boys, S. F. (1950). "Electronic Wave Functions. I. A General Method of Calculation for the Stationary States of Any Molecular System". Proc. R. Soc. [London], A 200 (1063): 542–554. Bibcode 1950RSPSA.200..542B. doi:10.1098/rspa.1950.0036. http://www.quantum-chemistry-history.com/Boys_Dat/BoysGauss1_1950/BoysG542.htm. 
• Boys, S. F. (1950). "Electronic Wave Functions. II. A Calculation for the Ground State of the Beryllium Atom". Proc. R. Soc. [London], A 201 (1064): 125–137. Bibcode 1950RSPSA.201..125B. doi:10.1098/rspa.1950.0047. 
• Boys, S. F. (1953). "Electronic Wave Functions. IX. Calculations for the Three Lowest States of the Beryllium Atom". Proc. R. Soc. [London], A 217 (1128): 136–150. Bibcode 1953RSPSA.217..136B. doi:10.1098/rspa.1953.0050. 
• Boys, S. F. (1953). "Electronic Wave Functions. X. A Calculation of Eight Variational Poly-Detor Wave Functions for Boron and Carbon". Proc. R. Soc. [London], A 217 (1129): 235–251. Bibcode 1953RSPSA.217..235B. doi:10.1098/rspa.1953.0059. 
• Boys, S. F.; Cook, G. B.; Reeves, C. M.; Shavitt, I. (1956). "Automatic Fundamental Calculations of Molecular Structure". Nature 178 (4544): 1207–1209. Bibcode 1956Natur.178.1207B. doi:10.1038/1781207a0. 
• Boys, S. F.; Shavitt, I. (1960). "Intermolecular Forces and Properties of Fluids. I. The Automatic Calculation of Higher Virial Coefficients and Some Values of the Fourth Coefficient for the Lennard-Jones Potential". Proc. R. Soc. [London], A 254 (1279): 487–498. doi:10.1098/rspa.1960.0034. 
• Boys, S. F.; Shavitt, I. (1960). "Intermolecular Forces and Properties of Fluids. II. A General Functional Representation of Intermolecular Potentials, and Some Values of the Second, Third and Fourth Virial Coefficients for Systematically Differing Potentials". Proc. R. Soc. [London], A 254 (1279): 499–506. doi:10.1098/rspa.1960.0035. 
• Boys, S. F. (1960). "The Integral Formulae for the Variational Solution of the Molecular Many-Electron Wave Equations in Terms of Gaussian Functions with Direct Electronic Correlation". Proc. R. Soc. [London], A 258 (1294): 402–411. Bibcode 1960RSPSA.258..402B. doi:10.1098/rspa.1960.0195. 
• Boys, S. F.; Cook, G. (1960). "Mathematical Problems in the Complete Quantum Predictions of Chemical Phenomena". Reviews of Modern Physics 32 (2): 285–295. Bibcode 1960RvMp...32..285B. doi:10.1103/RevModPhys.32.285. 
• Foster, J. M.; Boys, S. F. (1960). "A Quantum Variational Calculation for HCHO". Reviews of Modern Physics 32 (2): 303–304. Bibcode 1960RvMp...32..303F. doi:10.1103/RevModPhys.32.303. 
• Foster, J. M.; Boys, S. F. (1960). "Quantum variational calculations for a range of CH₂ configurations". Reviews of Modern Physics 32 (2): 305–307. Bibcode 1960RvMp...32..305F. doi:10.1103/RevModPhys.32.305. 
• Boys, S. F.; Rajagopal, P (1965). "Quantum Calculations, Which Are Accumulative in Accuracy, Un-restricted in Expansion Functions, and Economical in Computation". Advances in Quantum Chemistry 2: 1. Bibcode 1965AdQC....2....1B. 
• Boys, S. F. (1966). "Localized Orbitals and Localized Adjustment Functions". In Per-Olov Lödin. Quantum Theory of Atoms, Molecules, and the Solid State, A Tribute to John C. Slater. Academic Press. p. 253. Bibcode 1966qtam.book..253B. 
• Boys, S. F. (1968). "Independent assessments of the accuracy of the correlated wave functions for many-electron systems". Symp. Faraday Soc. 2 (2): 95–101. doi:10.1039/SF9680200095. 
• Boys, S. F. (1969). "Some Bilinear Convergence Characteristics of the Solutions of Dissymmetric Secular Equations". Proc. R. Soc. [London], A 309 (1497): 295–208. Bibcode 1969RSPSA.309..195B. 
• Boys, S. F.; Handy, N. C. (1969). "A Condition to Remove the Indeterminacy in Interelectronic Correlation Functions". Proc. R. Soc. [London], A 309 (1497): 209–220. Bibcode 1969RSPSA.309..209B. doi:10.1098/rspa.1969.0038. 
• Boys, S. F.; Handy, N. C. (1969). "The Determination of Energies and Wavefunctions with Full Electronic Correlation". Proc. R. Soc. [London], A 310 (1500): 43–61. Bibcode 1969RSPSA.310...43B. doi:10.1098/rspa.1969.0061. 
• Boys, S. F.; Handy, N. C. (1969). "A Calculation for the Energies and Wavefunctions for States of Neon with Full Electronic Correlation Accuracy". Proc. R. Soc. [London], A 310 (1500): 63–78. Bibcode 1969RSPSA.310...63B. doi:10.1098/rspa.1969.0062. 
• Boys, S. F.; Handy, N. C. (1969). "A First Solution, for LiH, of a Molecular Transcorrelated Wave Equation by Means of Restricted Numerical Integration". Proc. R. Soc. [London], A 311 (1505): 309–329. Bibcode 1969RSPSA.311..309B. doi:10.1098/rspa.1969.0120. 
• Boys, S. F.; Bernardi, F. (1970). "The calculation of small molecular interactions by the differences of separate total energies. Some procedures with reduced errors". Molecular Physics 19 (4): 553–566. Bibcode 1970MolPh..19..553B. doi:10.1080/00268977000101561. 
• Bernardi, F.; Boys, S. F. (1973). "Explicit formula solutions of the contraction conditions for transcorrelated wavefunctions". Molecular Physics 25 (1): 35–44. Bibcode 1973MolPh..25...35B. doi:10.1080/00268977300100051. 
• Allison, D. J.; Handy, N. C.; Boys, S. F. (1973). "A new basis set for molecular wavefunctions". Molecular Physics 26 (3): 715–723. Bibcode 1973MolPh..26..715A. doi:10.1080/00268977300102031. 
• Bucknell, M. G.; Handy, N. C.; Boys, S. F. (1974). "Vibration-rotation wavefunctions and energies for any molecule obtained by a variational method". Molecular Physics 28 (3): 759–776. Bibcode 1974MolPh..28..759B. doi:10.1080/00268977400102121. 

External links

• Hall, George G. (1996). "Samuel Francis Boys - 1911–1972". Molecular Physics 88 (2): 309–314. doi:10.1080/00268979650026352. http://www.quantum-chemistry-history.com/Boys_Dat/BoysBio_by_Hall.htm. 
• Handy, Nicholas C.; Pople, John; Shavit, Isaiah (1996). "Samuel Francis Boys". The Journal of Physical Chemistry 100 (15): 6007–6016. doi:10.1021/jp963465d.