William E. Palke, professor in the UCSB Chemistry Department for 31 years, died on May 10, 1999 from a heart attack. He was 58 years old. To many, he was more than a professor. He was a scientist, colleague, hiking companion, rock climber, and friend.

Professor Palke did his graduate work with W.N. Lipscomb at Harvard, receiving his Ph.D. in 1966. There followed two years of postdoctoral work as an A.A. Noyes Fellow at Caltech where he worked in collaboration with Professor William Goddard. Then in 1968, he came to UCSB as an assistant professor in theoretical chemistry.

His first scientific publication came in 1962 from undergraduate work done with Professor Fred Anson at Caltech. Some 37 years and 84 papers later, his most recent paper appeared in the Journal of Magnetic Resonance.

Professor Palke was a great collaborator. In our department he was a major resource for many graduate students and co-authored papers with 10 different faculty members.
By and large, the work of Professor Palke fell in five areas. He developed efficient computational methods for determining wave functions used in evaluating properties of molecules. He sought to understand the quantum details of chemical bonding. He analyzed the different factors that give rise to the barriers to internal rotation in molecules. He applied density functional theory to relate the electron density in molecules to molecular properties.

In recent years, he extended the theory of relaxation effects in nuclear magnetic resonance experiments. This work resulted in a set of computer programs that, for the first time, permitted calculation of the spectra exhibited by complicated spin systems interacting in general ways.

Down through the years Professor Palke taught a variety of courses including General Chemistry, Environmental Chemistry, Physical Chemistry, Statistical Mechanics and Quantum Chemistry. He was widely regarded as one of the best teachers in the department. He is sorely missed.

2009 W.E. Palke Lecture
Monday, March 30th 2009
2:00 PM ESB 1001
Professor J. Andrew McCammon
University of California, San Diego

"Nasty Beasties: Computer-Aided Drug Discovery for Infectious Diseases"

Past lecturers: