Philip Bunker

Philip R. Bunker (born 29 June 1941) is a British-Canadian scientist and author, known for his work in theoretical chemistry and molecular spectroscopy.

Philip R. Bunker
Born (1941-06-29) 29 June 1941
London, England
CitizenshipBritish
Canadian
Alma materKing's College London (B.Sc.) University of Cambridge (Ph.D.)
Known formolecular symmetry
methylene (CH2)
dimethylacetylene
AwardsHumboldt Prize 1995
Scientific career
Fieldstheoretical chemistry
molecular spectroscopy
InstitutionsNational Research Council of Canada
Doctoral advisorChristopher Longuet-Higgins[1]

Education and early work

Philip Bunker was educated at Battersea Grammar School in Streatham. He received a bachelor's degree at King's College in 1962 and earned a Ph.D. in theoretical chemistry from Cambridge University in 1965, advised by H.C. Longuet-Higgins. The subject of his Ph.D. thesis was the spectrum of the dimethylacetylene molecule and its torsional barrier.[2] During Bunker's Ph.D. work in 1963, Longuet-Higgins published the paper that introduced molecular symmetry groups consisting of feasible nuclear permutations and permutation-inversions.[3] Under the guidance of Longuet-Higgins, Bunker applied these new symmetry ideas and introduced the notations G36 and G100 for the molecular symmetry groups of dimethylacetylene and ferrocene, respectively.[4] After obtaining his Ph.D. degree, he was a postdoctoral fellow with Jon T. Hougen in the spectroscopy group of Gerhard Herzberg at the National Research Council of Canada. He then spent his entire career at the National Research Council of Canada, eventually rising to the position of principal research officer in 1997.[5]

Career and important contributions

Philip Bunker's published scientific work has focused on the use of fundamental quantum mechanics to predict and interpret the spectral properties of polyatomic molecules due to their combined rotational, vibrational, electronic and nuclear-spin states, and their symmetries. He has been particularly concerned with the study of the energy levels and spectra of molecules that undergo large amplitude vibrational motions.[6][7] Applications of this work to the methylene (CH2) molecule proved to be important in determining the separation between the singlet and triplet electronic states, and in determining which singlet and triplet rotational levels interact.[8][9] In the 1990s, he returned to the problem of determining the torsional barrier in dimethylacetylene after Robert McKellar and John Johns, experimentalists at the National Research Council of Canada, had obtained a very high resolution infrared spectrum of the molecule.[10]

Bunker is a well-known expert in the use of the molecular symmetry group.[11][12] At the end of Longuet-Higgins' paper in which he introduced permutation and permutation-inversion molecular symmetry groups,[3] Longuet-Higgins wrote: "In conclusion it should be added that the present definition can be extended to linear molecules, and to molecules where spin-orbit coupling is strong; but these topics are best dealt with separately." However, a few years later (in 1967) Longuet-Higgins left the field of theoretical chemistry; he wrote nothing more about molecular symmetry and did not make these extensions. Bunker then developed the extensions of these principles to linear molecules[13] as well as to molecules with strong spin-orbit coupling[14] Bunker is also known for his work in the quantitative description of non-adiabatic effects in quantum molecular dynamics.[15][16]

Together with Per Jensen (1956-2022), who was a theoretical chemist at Bergische Universität Wuppertal,[17] Bunker has written two books on theoretical chemistry and molecular spectroscopy; Molecular Symmetry and Spectroscopy (1998)[18] and Fundamentals of Molecular Symmetry (2005).[19] Currently, Bunker is Researcher Emeritus at the National Research Council of Canada and a guest scientist at the Fritz-Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society.[20] He has also held visiting scientist positions at universities and institutions around the world during the course of his career, including ETH-Zurich, Massey University, Kyushu University and University of Florence.[5] During the course of his career he has delivered over 400 invited lectures.[5]

Awards and honors

Bunker received the Humboldt Prize (1995), the Medaili Jana Marca Marci of the Czech Spectroscopy Society (2002),[21] and the 2002 Sir Harold Thompson Memorial Award, which is sponsored by Pergamon Press (now Elsevier) for the most significant advance in spectroscopy published in Spectrochimica Acta each year.[22] He is a fellow of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry.[23]

Personal life

Bunker married Eva Cservenits in 1966. Their son, Alex E. Bunker, is a computational biophysicist at the University of Helsinki who has co-authored more than 50 research articles.[24]

References
  1. Philip Bunker at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  2. P.R. Bunker; H.C. Longuet-Higgins (1964). "The Infrared Spectrum of Dimethylacetylene and the Torsional Barrier". Proc. R. Soc. A. 280 (1382): 340. Bibcode:1964RSPSA.280..340B. doi:10.1098/rspa.1964.0149. S2CID 94724543.
  3. Longuet-Higgins, H.C. (1963). "The symmetry groups of non-rigid molecules". Molecular Physics. 6 (5): 445–460. Bibcode:1963MolPh...6..445L. doi:10.1080/00268976300100501.
  4. P. R. Bunker (1964). "The Rotation-Torsion Wavefunctions of Molecules that have two Identical Rotors". Mol. Phys. 8: 81. doi:10.1080/00268976400100091.
  5. "Theory and Simulation Group of the National Research Council of Canada". Retrieved 30 July 2021.
  6. J. T. Hougen; P. R. Bunker; J. W. C. Johns (1970). "The vibration-rotation problem in triatomic molecules allowing for a large amplitude bending". J Mol Spectrosc. 34: 136. Bibcode:1970JMoSp..34..136H. doi:10.1016/0022-2852(70)90080-9.
  7. P. R. Bunker (1983). "Quasilinear and quasiplanar molecules". Annu. Rev. Phys. Chem. 34: 59. Bibcode:1983ARPC...34...59B. doi:10.1146/annurev.pc.34.100183.000423.
  8. A.R.W. McKellar; P.R. Bunker; T.J. Sears; K.M. Evenson; R.J. Saykally; S.R. Langhoff (1983). "Far Infrared Laser Magnetic Resonance of Singlet Methylene. Singlet-Triplet Perturbations, Singlet-Triplet Transitions, and the Singlet-Triplet Splitting". J Chem Phys. 79 (11): 5251. Bibcode:1983JChPh..79.5251M. doi:10.1063/1.445713.
  9. P.R. Bunker, 'The Spectrum, Structure, and Singlet-Triplet Splitting in Methylene CH2.' Chapter in ‘Comparison of Ab Initio Quantum Chemistry with Experiment for small molecules’, ed. Rodney J. Bartlett, Reidel Dordrecht The Netherlands (1985). ISBN 978-9027721297
  10. C. di Lauro; P. R. Bunker; J. W. C. Johns; A. R. W. McKellar (1997). "The rotation-torsion structure in the ν11/ν15 (Gs) methyl rocking fundamental band in dimethylacetylene". J. Mol. Spectrosc. 184 (1): 177–185. Bibcode:1997JMoSp.184..177L. doi:10.1006/jmsp.1997.7321.
  11. P.R. Bunker 'Practically Everything you Ought to know about the Molecular Symmetry Group' in, ‘Vibrational Spectra and Structure, Vol. III’, ed. James R. Durig, Marcel Dekker (1975) ISBN 0824711491
  12. Xu, Yunjie; Jäger, Wolfgang (May 2011). "Philip R. Bunker and A. Robert W. McKellar Special Issue". Journal of Molecular Spectroscopy. 267 (1–2): 1–2. Bibcode:2011JMoSp.267....1X. doi:10.1016/j.jms.2011.04.021. Retrieved 30 July 2021.
  13. P.R. Bunker; D. Papousek (1969). "The Symmetry Groups of Linear Molecules". J. Mol. Spectrosc. 32 (3): 419. Bibcode:1969JMoSp..32..419B. doi:10.1016/0022-2852(69)90007-1.
  14. P.R. Bunker, 'The Spin Double Groups of Molecular Symmetry Groups,' Chapter in ‘Lecture Notes in Chemistry’, ed. J. Hinze, Springer-Verlag, volume 12 (1979). ISBN 978-3540097075
  15. P.R. Bunker; R.E. Moss (1980). "The Effect of the Breakdown of the Born-Oppenheimer Approximation on the Rotation-Vibration Hamiltonian of a Triatomic Molecule". J. Mol. Spectrosc. 80 (1): 217. Bibcode:1980JMoSp..80..217B. doi:10.1016/0022-2852(80)90283-0.
  16. Per Jensen, G. Osmann and P. R. Bunker 'The Renner Effect.' Chapter 15 in ‘Computational Molecular Spectroscopy’, eds. P. Jensen and P. R. Bunker, Wiley, Chichester, (2000) ISBN 0-471-48998-0
  17. "Prof Per Jensen". Retrieved 20 July 2022.
  18. P. R. Bunker and Per Jensen (1998), Molecular Symmetry and Spectroscopy, 2nd ed. , NRC Research Press, Ottawa ISBN 9780660196282
  19. P. R. Bunker and Per Jensen (2005), Fundamentals of Molecular Symmetry (CRC Press) ISBN 0-7503-0941-5
  20. "Fritz Haber Institute: Collaborations". Retrieved 27 January 2022.
  21. "Nositelé medaile Jana Marka Marci z Kronlandu". Spektroskopická společnost Jana Marka Marci, o.s. Retrieved 26 August 2022.
  22. "Editorial Announcement: Sir Harold Thompson Memorial Award". Spectrochimica Acta. 42A (6): i. 1986.
  23. "BUNKER, Dr. Philip R." IUPAC. Retrieved 21 July 2022.
  24. "Alex Edwin Bunker". University of Helsinki. Retrieved 26 August 2022.

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