David Parker Craig AO FAA. 23 December 1919—1 July 2015

Abstract

David Craig was an outstanding Australian theoretical chemist whose academic life oscillated between Australia (University of Sydney and Australian National University (ANU)) and the UK (University College London). The Craig Building of the Research School of Chemistry of the ANU was named in his honour in 1995. He was President of the Australian Academy of Science from 1990 to 1994, and the Academy's David Craig Medal, which recognizes outstanding contributions to chemistry research, was inaugurated in his honour. His best-known research is in the fields of quantum theory and spectroscopy of aromatic molecules, molecular crystals, quantum electrodynamics and chirality.

The Many Chemists Who Could Have Proposed the Woodward‐Hoffmann Rules (Including Roald Hoffmann) But Didn't: The Theoretical and Physical Chemists†**

“…[6] Had Doering been asking Berry to distinguish between two related valence isomerizations, one which was orbital symmetry allowed, the other which was orbital symmetry forbidden, it is possible that Berry would have responded in such a manner that would have led to a deeper discussion between Berry and Doering and ultimately a working collaboration and the principle of conservation of orbital symmetry -before Woodward and Hoffmann. e. David Craig [132,133] (1919-2015) and Edgar Heilbronner [134] We now speak of two precedents for Zimmerman's Hückel-Möbius model for orbital symmetry control [77,78,135] and also for Dewar's aromatic-anti-aromatic transition state model for orbital symmetry control. [76,79,80] These two models will be described in full detail in Paper 16 in this series.…”

“…Syrkin was close but did not distinguish aromaticity from destabilized systems, i. e., antiaromaticity. Mark E. Vol'pin [302, 303] discussed Syrkin's six electron aromatic stabilization for reactions, extended this concept to 2 electron‐3‐atom systems, and talked about David P. Craig's [304] pseudoaromaticity [137] but did not extend to antiaromaticity or the Möbius/Hückel transition state paradigm.…”