Josef Paldus

Who is Josef Paldus?

Josef Paldus, FRSC is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Applied Mathematics at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

Josef Paldus became associate professor at the University of Waterloo after emigration to Canada from Czechoslovakia in 1968. In 1975 he was promoted to full professor at this university and he retired in 2001.

Paldus' research is mainly in the field of quantum chemistry and especially in the mathematical aspects of it. He is known for his collaborative work with Jiří Čížek on coupled cluster theory. Paldus and Čížek adapted the many-body coupled cluster method to many-electron systems, thus making it a viable method in the study of the electronic correlation that occurs in atoms and molecules.

Other well-known work by Paldus is the Unitary Group Approach. This approach regards the computation of Hamiltonian matrix elements over N-electron spin eigenstates that appear in electronic correlation problems.

Josef Paldus has authored over 330 scientific papers.

Paldus possesses several doctor degrees: In 1961 he received a PhD in Physical Chemistry at the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. In 1995 he became DrSc at the Charles University in Prague. In June 2006 he became Dr.h.c. at the Comenius University in Bratislava and in June 2008 he was awarded the honorary degree Docteur Honoris Causa by the Université Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg, France.