Mirra Dyatkina (1915–1972), a pioneer in quantum chemistry

Abstract

Mirra Efimovna Dyatkina (1915–1972), an outstanding quantum chemist, was one of several scientists who started systematic quantum chemical studies of molecular structure in the USSR. She obtained principal results in the theory of directed valences, in building quantum chemical descriptions of semiquinones and metalloketils, in studying conjugated systems with heteroatoms. She developed ideas about multiple bonds in complex compounds and a theory of increasing the multiplicity of bonds in uranyls, vanadyls and other similar compounds. One of the first calculations of the spin density in organic radicals was also performed by M.E. Dyatkina. Most often M.E. Dyatkina is mentioned together with her teacher and senior colleague Yakov Kivovich Syrkin (1894–1974). Indeed, she shared with him both the honor of pioneering work in a new field of science and the honor of being the Galilei of the 20th century who suffered for this novel science in the USSR. Her contemporaries were well acquainted with her work. Her younger colleague I.D. Morozova recalled Charles Coulson, Per-Olov Löwdin, Frank Harris, Enrico Clementi who were looking forward to her arrival at the conference and greeted her with deep respect. Apart from several obituaries, no historical, scientific or memoir articles about M.E. Dyatkina were published after her death. Therefore, she is hardly remembered today, although her contemporaries all over the world were well acquainted with her works. This article is intended to correct this injustice, briefly describing the biography and main scientific results of M.E. Dyatkina.