Symposium for Bretislav Friedrich

Bretislav Friedrich was born in Prague, Czech Republic, in 1953. He graduated from Charles University in 1976, with a degree in physical chemistry. His diploma thesis dealt with non-ideal behavior of macro-molecular solutions in mixed solvents. Upon graduation, he switched fields to study the dynamics of ion-molecule reactions in crossed molecular beams at the J. Heyrovsky Institute of Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences, where he earned his PhD in 1981 in chemical physics. Subsequently, he switched countries as well, more than once. He was an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the Max Planck Institute in Göttingen (1986–1987), Research Associate and later Senior Research Fellow and Lecturer at Harvard University (1987–2003), and, since 2003, a Research Group Leader at the Department of Molecular Physics at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society in Berlin. He is also an Honorary Professor at the Technical University of Berlin. Aside from his research in molecular physics (directional states of molecules, quantum computing, analytic solvability, structure of solvated molecular complexes) he maintains an abiding interest in the history of science (emergence of quantum mechanics, rise of physical and theoretical chemistry, scientific biography) and is engaged in efforts to eliminate chemical and other weapons of mass destruction. He authored/co-authored numerous publications, including three books, and serves on several editorial boards.