Josef Paldus, (November 25, 1935 – January 15, 2023) was a Czech-born Canadian theoretical chemist who was a Distinguished

Professor Emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". ...

of Applied Mathematics at the

University of Waterloo The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo, UW, or Waterloo) is a Public university, public research university located in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is on of land adjacent to uptown Waterloo and Waterloo Park. The university also op ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, Canada. Paldus became associate professor at the University of Waterloo after emigration to Canada from (former) Czechoslovakia in 1968. In 1975 he was promoted to full professor at this university, and he retired in 2001. Paldus' research was mainly in the field of

quantum chemistry Quantum chemistry, also called molecular quantum mechanics, is a branch of physical chemistry focused on the application of quantum mechanics to chemical systems, particularly towards the quantum-mechanical calculation of electronic contributions ...

and especially in the mathematical aspects of it. He is known for his collaborative work with Jiří Čížek on

coupled cluster Coupled cluster (CC) is a numerical technique used for describing many-body systems. Its most common use is as one of several post-Hartree–Fock ab initio quantum chemistry methods in the field of computational chemistry, but it is also used ...

theory. Paldus and Čížek adapted the many-body coupled cluster method to many-electron systems, thus making it a viable method in the study of the

electronic correlation Electronic correlation is the interaction between electrons in the electronic structure of a quantum system. The correlation energy is a measure of how much the movement of one electron is influenced by the presence of all other electrons. Ato ...

that occurs in atoms and molecules. Other well-known work by Paldus is the Unitary Group Approach. This approach regards the computation of Hamiltonian matrix elements over ''N''-electron spin eigenstates that appear in electronic correlation problems. Paldus (co)authored over 330 scientific papers. Paldus possessed several doctoral degrees: In 1961 he received a PhD in Physical Chemistry at the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. In 1995 he became DrSc at the Charles University in Prague. In June 2006 he became Dr.h.c. at the Comenius University in Bratislava and in June 2008 he was awarded the honorary degree ''Docteur Honoris Causa'' by the Université Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg, France. Paldus died in Kitchener on January 15, 2023, at the age of 87. Other honors received by Paldus are ''inter alia'': *1981 Corresponding Member of the European Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, Paris. *1983 Fellow of the

Royal Society of Canada The Royal Society of Canada (RSC; , SRC), also known as the Academies of Arts, Humanities, and Sciences of Canada (French: ''Académies des arts, des lettres et des sciences du Canada''), is the senior national, bilingual council of distinguishe ...

. *1984 Member of the

International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science The International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science (IAQMS) is an international scientific learned society covering all applications of quantum theory to chemistry and chemical physics. It was created in Menton in 1967. The founding members we ...

. *1985 Member of the

New York Academy of Sciences The New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS), originally founded as the Lyceum of Natural History in January 1817, is a nonprofit professional society based in New York City, with more than 20,000 members from 100 countries. It is the fourth-oldes ...

. *1990 Member of the Board of Directors, International Society for Theoretical Chemical Physics. *1992 J. Heyrovský Gold Medal of the

Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences The Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (Czech: ''Československá akademie věd'', Slovak: ''Česko-slovenská akadémia vied'') was established in 1953 to be the scientific center for Czechoslovakia. It was succeeded by the Czech Academy of Science ...

. *1994 Gold Medal of the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia. *1995 Honorary Member of The Learned Society of the Czech Republic. *2002 Fellow of the

Fields Institute The Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences, commonly known simply as the Fields Institute, is an international centre for scientific research in mathematical sciences. It is an independent non-profit with strong ties to 20 Ontar ...

for Research in Mathematical Sciences. *2005 Gold Medal of Charles University. *2007 Honorary Medal ''De Scientia et Humanitate Optime Meritis'' of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague, Czech Republic. *2010 Honorary Fellowship of the European Society of Computational Methods in Sciences and Engineering. *2013 Fellow of the

American Institute of Physics The American Institute of Physics (AIP) promotes science and the profession of physics, publishes physics journals, and produces publications for scientific and engineering societies. The AIP is made up of various member societies. Its corpora ...

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Josef Paldus

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paldus, Josef 1935 births 2023 deaths Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada Members of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science Theoretical chemists Academic staff of the University of Waterloo Computational chemists Fellows of the American Physical Society Charles University alumni

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