DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY

In Memoriam

Neil received his B. Sc. In chemical engineering from Purdue University in 1959 and a Ph. D. in chemistry from Princeton in 1964. From 1964 to 1966 he was a postdoctoral fellow, first at Cornell and then at Yale.

In 1966 he joined the chemistry faculty at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. There he taught courses in general, physical and theoretical chemistry. They ranged from first year undergraduate courses to advanced graduate courses.

His research interests were in the area of theory, particularly theories of gas phase reaction rates, of molecular collision dynamics and of thermodynamic properties of dense fluids. He investigated relationships between gas phase phenomenological rate constants and cross sections for inelastic and reactive molecular collisions. At a more fundamental level he worked on quantitative relationships between these cross sections and the force fields which characterized the colliding molecules, as well as the relation between molecular force fields and the properties of dense fluids.

During his time at Queen’s remarkable advances were made in computer technology. Most theorists took advantage of the opportunities offered by these advances, but Neil preferred to make minimal use of the computer.  Neil retired from Queen’s in 1994 and came to Northwestern in 1995, in part to be close to family that lived in the area.

At Northwestern Neil taught a graduate course in statistical mechanics on several occasions.  He was also an Assistant Editor of the Journal of Physical Chemistry for about 20 years.  Neil was a good friend to everyone on the 4^th floor of Ryan Hall, and he often interacted with students, faculty and others more broadly at Northwestern.  He especially  delighted in conversations with the graduate students and postdocs at lunch.   Everyone he interacted with benefited from his deep understanding of science, and from his broad interests in topics beyond his research.   He loved doing research, and it is noteworthy that he published his most recent paper in 2021.