History of ISTCP

The International Society for Theoretical Chemical Physics (ISTCP) was founded in 1991 by Prof. János Ladik, at the University of Erlangen, Germany, together with other prominent scientists. Its aim is to promote all theoretical developments on problems at the frontier between physics and chemistry. This involves the investigation of atomic and molecular assemblies in dilute and condensed media, particularly when submitted to electric and magnetic fields, as well as in novel materials and biological systems.

The Society involves a Board of Directors gathering fifty of the finest scientists in the fields of Theoretical Chemistry and Physics, and a Board of national representatives for about thirty countries. It also has local sections with their own Board. The current President (as of September 2011) is Prof. Erkki J. Brändas, from Uppsala University, Sweden, an Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Quantum Chemistry. The president for France, where the Fourth Congress of ISTCP (ISTCP-IV) took place, was Prof. Roland Lefebvre, from Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris.

Since its foundation, ISTCP has organized seven international Congresses:

Prof. János Ladik, founder of ISTCP, was a co-organizer of the first three ISTCP Congresses.

These Congresses gathered from 120 to 400 participants. Proceedings were published as special issues of the International Journal of Quantum Chemistry (IJQC), Wiley, USA:

The proceedings of ISTCP-VII (Tokyo, Japan, September 2011) will be published in IJQC.

Advanced reviews and general chemical physics papers were collected in Progress in Theoretical Chemistry and Physics (PTCP), a book series published by Springer, Germany, from the presentations of ISTCP-IV (Marly-le-Roi, France, July 2002).

There has also been local meetings organized by national sections of ISTCP, particularly a symposium organized by the French section at Toulouse, France, in May 1997. This section has also financed the participation of young scientists at both international Congresses of New Orleans and Mexico City.

The Eighth Congress of ISTCP will be organized by Prof. Péter Surján at Eötvös University Budapest, Hungary.