Molecular similarity has always been an important conceptual tool of chemists, yet systematic approaches to molecular similarity problems have only recently been recognized as a major contributor to our understanding of molecular properties. Advanced approaches to molecular similarity analysis have their foundation in quantum similarity measures, and are important direct or indirect contributors to some of the predictive theoretical, computational, and also experimental methods of modern chemistry.
This volume provides a survey of the foundations and the contemporary mathematical and...

This volume contains most of the invited lectures of the 2nd Structural Chemistry Indaba on "Molecular Interactions," held at Skukuza, Kruger Park, South Africa, August 3- 8, 1997. While the 1995 conference concentrated more on the principles underlying molecular modeling, like the existence of a molecular shape, this conference centers on molecular interactions or, more generally, on molecules in environments. Unfortunately, it was impossible, for various reasons, to unite all invited lectures in this volume, but nevertheless this collection contains contributions ranging from the...

This NATO Advanced Study Institute centered on large-scale molecular systems: Quantum mechanics, although providing a general framework for the description of matter, is not easily applicable to many concrete systems of interest; classical statistical methods, on the other hand, allow only a partial picture of the behaviour of large systems. The aim of the ASI was to present both aspects of the subject matter and to foster interaction between the scientists working in these important areas of theoretical physics and theoretical chemistry. The quantum-mechanical part was mostly based on the...

At the end of the workshop on "New Theoretical Concepts in Physical Chemistry," one of the participants made an attempt to present a first impression of its achievements from his own personal standpoint. Appar ently his views reflected a general feeling, so that the organizers thought they would be suitable as a presentation of the proceedings for future readers. That is the background from which this foreword was born. The scope of the workshop is a very broad one. There are contribu tions from mathematics, physics, crystallography, chemistry and biology; the problems are approached either...