Parr, Robert G., 1921-....

Robert G. Parr was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1921. He attended Brown University and did his graduate work at the University of Minnesota under Bryce Crawford. He subsequently taught at Carnegie Institute of Technology, Johns Hopkins University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Robert G. Parr was an important theoretical chemist. In concert with his pupil Rudolph Pariser and in conjunction with the researches of Sir John Pople he contributed to the formulation of what came to be called "the P-P-P method" for predicting electronic spectra. In the latter part of his career he devoted his energy to the Density Functional Theory. Robert G. Parr is now retired.

closely with Rudolph Pariser on the formulation of what later became known as the P-P-P (for Pariser-Parr-Pople) Theory. Density Functional Theory (or DFT) became the consuming passion of his later years and when, in 1999 Dr. Walter Kohn, the proponent of DFT, was awarded the Nobel Prize with John Pople, he invited Robert Parr to attend the ceremonies as his guest. Some felt that Parr should have shared in the award. Robert G. Parr is now retired and lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.