Graduate_and_early_postdoctoral_education Robert_S._Mulliken

robert mulliken, chicago 1929 (third right)

at chicago, had received grant national research council (nrc) had paid of work on isotope separation. nrc grant extended in 1923 2 years study isotope effects on band spectra of such diatomic molecules boron nitride (bn) (comparing molecules b , b). went harvard university learn spectrographic technique frederick a. saunders , quantum theory e. c. kemble. @ time, able associate many future luminaries, including j. robert oppenheimer, john h. van vleck, , harold c. urey. met john c. slater, had worked niels bohr.

in 1925 , 1927, mulliken traveled europe, working outstanding spectroscopists , quantum theorists such erwin schrödinger, paul a. m. dirac, werner heisenberg, louis de broglie, max born, , walther bothe (all of whom received nobel prizes) , friedrich hund, @ time born s assistant. all, wolfgang pauli, developing new quantum mechanics supersede old quantum theory. mulliken particularly influenced hund, had been working on quantum interpretation of band spectra of diatomic molecules, same spectra mulliken had investigated @ harvard. in 1927 mulliken worked hund , result developed molecular orbital theory, in electrons assigned states extend on entire molecule. in consequence, molecular orbital theory referred hund-mulliken theory.