Le Roy Radius By Rylee Wolfkamp
Background
Born Sept. 30, 1943 in Ottawa, Dr. R.J. Le Roy specializes in theoretical and computational chemical physics. This studies the intermolecular and intra molecular forces surrounding molecules. Le Roy has been the Professor of Chemistry at the University of Waterloo since 1972 until present.
Le Roy Radius
His PhD work with Richard Bernstein included the development the LeRoy-Bernstein theory. This came from the observation that molecules were vibrating so energetically that they are on the threshold of breaking apart. Based on the quantum mechanical theory and "Van der Waals" forces, with a little algebra and calculus gave them a simple analytic expressions for describing the dependence on energy, and hence on vibrational quantum number, of vibrational level spacing, expectation values of the bond length, and other properties of molecules in levels lying very near dissociation. This 'near-dissociation theory' has also figured prominently in the reading of the location of molecules.
Dr. Le Roy describes his work saying, "In effect, this 'radius' tries to define the boundary between the long-range region where all atoms and/or molecules interact simply through the classical physics of independent charge distributions, and the shorter-range `chemical' region where electron exchange energies take over."
How It Relates To Our Class
Dr Le Roy's theories and his work has contributed to the study of spectroscopy and electron placements which is relevant to this unit of the structure and properties of matter because it allows us to more accurately measure the placement and properties of electrons and by extension, the atom.
Sources
http://leroy.uwaterloo.ca/leroy_radius.html