Dr. Thakkar, left, receiving the ‘International Conference of Computational Methods in Sciences and Engineering (ICCMSE) 2004 Prize in Theoretical and Computational Chemistry’ from Dr. Simos in Vouliagmeni, Greece. The woman at center is not identified. (Photo: Courtesy, Dr. Theodore Simos)

Dr. Ajit Thakkar, professor of chemistry at University of New Brunswick in Canada and one of the world’s most respected chemists, was awarded the ‘International Conference of Computational Methods in Sciences and Engineering (ICCMSE) 2004 Prize in Theoretical and Computational Chemistry.’ The prize was awarded by Dr. Theodore Simos, president of the European Society for Computational Methods in Sciences an Engineering (ESCMSE) in Vouliagmeni, Greece. Recipients of the award must first be nominated by a member of the international scientific community. A portfolio of the nominee’s academic accomplishments is then subject to international peer review, and the results are presented to the administrative council of the ESCMSE.

Dr. Thakkar has published more than 200 research papers in international journals. The impact of his research has placed him in the top half percent of the world’s most cited chemists.

He was awarded the prestigious Alfred P Sloan Research Fellowship in 1984 and the Canadian Society for Chemistry’s Noranda Award for distinguished contribution to physical chemistry in 1991.

Dr. Thakkar, born in Poona, India in 1950, left home at 17 to explore the West. A circuitous route led him to Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.

A summer job programming calculations of virial coefficients and transport cross-sections using Fortran IV, dreadful JCL, and punched cards on an IBM 360/50 drew him to computational chemistry. In 1976, he completed a Ph.D. in theoretical chemistry guided by Vedene Smith and influenced by Robert Parr.

His faculty career began at the University of Waterloo and, since 1984, continued at the idyllic Fredericton campus of the University of New Brunswick. He is now a University Research Professor, and author of more than 200 articles on molecular properties, electron densities, and intermolecular forces.

His research was recognized by the awards of an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship in 1984, the Canadian Society for Chemistry’s Noranda Award for distinguished contributions to physical chemistry in 1991, and the European Society for Computational Methods in Sciences and Engineering ICCMSE prize in 2004.

Nineteen of his former students and post-doctoral fellows now hold academic positions at universities in locations all over the world: Canada, the United States of America, India, Greece, Poland, China, Brazil, Taiwan, and Namibia.

He has served as both treasurer and president of the Canadian Association of Theoretical Chemists. He is a Fellow of the Chemical Institute of Canada. He is an associate editor of the Journal of Molecular Structure (Theochem), a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Computational Methods in Sciences and Engineering, and has served on the advisory editorial boards of the International Journal of Quantum Chemistry and the Canadian Journal of Chemistry.