Proceedings of the Third International Congress of Quantum Chemistry, held at Kyoto, Japan, October 29-November 3, 1979

The Fourth International Congress in Quantum Chemistry under the auspices of the International Academy of Molecular Quantum Science in Menton, France was arranged at Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden, during the period June 14 - 19, 1982, in close collaboration with the University of Florida. The previous congresses were held in Menton 1973, New Orleans 1976, and Kyoto 1979, and the 1985 congress is tentatively planned to be held in the province of Quebec, Canada. The Congress consisted of six symposia in various areas of quantum chemistry, solid-state theory, and quantum bi ology. The meeting was attended by about 450 scientists from 45 different nations, and a total of more than 300 scientific papers were presented. Even the poster contri butions were given some plenary time. These proceedings contain the text of the plenary lec tures as well as the chairmen's introductions, whereas the contributed papers will be published in the International Journal of Quantum Chemistry, (John Wiley & Sons, New York) in the regular January - April 1983 issues.

Bernard PULLMAN During a long period organic chemistry was one of the pre ferred field of exploration for many quantum chemists. It still remains of major interest for a number of them, but altogether it seems as if the center of gravity of the quantum molecular theories became displaced towards different horizons. The dis placement seems in fact to occur in two directions. On the one hand, we see a prominent development of very refined computations for relatively small and frequently inorganic molecular systems with the view of a better and better reproduction of their obser vable properties and thus a better understanding of the fundamen tal principles governing the electronic structure of molecules. On the other hand, there is a no less prominent development of frequently also no less refined computations towards the study of molecular systems which because of their dimensions or the com plexity of the questions which they raise go beyond the usual treatment of organic molecules. These later studies involve in particular the penetration of quantum-mechanical concepts and me thods into the realm of biochemistry, biophysics, and pharma~olo gy. It so happens that because of the nature of the problems in volved this penetration has taken up a double aspect.