A Brief History of the Southeastern Theoretical Chemistry Association

The Southeastern Theoretical Chemistry Association (SETCA) is a loose organization of theoretical and computational chemists from across the Southeastern United States. Since its inception in 1970 by Prof. Bruno Linder of Florida State University, its primary function has been an annual conference to give faculty, students, and postdoctoral associates an opportunity to present their most recent research results. In its first few years, Prof. Linder hosted the conference at Florida State University and limited participation to scientists from Florida, Louisiana, and Georgia. According to Prof. Linder,

``I think that I may have gotten the idea of a SETCA organization in Sanibel (the real Sanibel) in 1969. I spoke to Yngve Öhrn, Bill Rhodes and others and all were enthusiastic about the idea. The idea was to form a group from faculty at Universities that are within driving distance from each other. A faculty member can load up his (her) car with graduate students and postdocs and drive down to the meeting place at an absolute minimum [cost].''

Since its auspicious beginning, SETCA participation has gradually extended to include essentially all of the Southeastern states, and the honor of hosting the event has been passed to more than a dozen major Universities. This year (2007) represents the first time the conference has been held in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

According to Prof. Adolph Beyerlein, who hosted the 1991 SETCA meeting at Clemson University, the Association's original by-laws stipulated that the host of the upcoming meeting also acts as the Chair of the organization, assisted by a Vice Chair defined as the host of the previous meeting. In 2002, Rig Hernandez, David Sherrill, and Edward Valeev, who hosted the meeting at Georgia Tech, put forward a motion to modify this structure such that the host of the meeting to be held two years hence serves as the Vice Chair. This change has provided greater stability in the organization in that the upcoming meeting is known further in advance.

The known locations and organizers of past, present, and future meetings of SETCA are given below. We welcome any additional information from early participants that might help us to complete this history of the Association.

setca2007@vt.edu