Molecular Dynamics of Elementary Chemical Reactions (Nobel Lecture)

That his Nobel lecture might be regarded as a tour through a family album is the view expressed by D. R. Herschbach in a note of thanks to his co‐workers. The following citation might serve as a stimulus for reading this lecture: “As urged by my students, on this occasion I want both to view our still youthful field of research from a wider perspective and to recount some favorite instructive episodes from its infancy. I will also briefly discuss several prototype reactions which have served to develop heuristic models and to reveal how electronic structure governs the reaction dynamics.”– Note: The Nobel lectures of Y.‐T. Lee and J. C. Polanyi who were awarded the Nobel prize together with D. R. Herschbach , have already appeared in the October issue of the journal.