Early Contributions to Theoretical Chemistry: Inga Fischer-Hjalmars, a Founder of the Swedish School
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Molecular Physics An International Journal at the Interface Between Chemistry and Physics ISSN: 0026-8976 (Print) 1362-3028 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tmph20 Early contributions to theoretical chemistry: Inga Fischer-Hjalmars, a founder of the Swedish school Adam Johannes Johansson To cite this article: Adam Johannes Johansson (2016): Early contributions to theoretical chemistry: Inga Fischer-Hjalmars, a founder of the Swedish school, Molecular Physics, DOI: 10.1080/00268976.2016.1255801 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00268976.2016.1255801 View supplementary material Published online: 06 Dec 2016. Submit your article to this journal View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=tmph20 Download by: [Kungliga Tekniska Hogskola] Date: 07 December 2016, At: 01:38 MOLECULAR PHYSICS, http://dx.doi.org/./.. MQM2016 Early contributions to theoretical chemistry: Inga Fischer-Hjalmars, a founder of the Swedish school Adam Johannes Johansson ∗ Independent researcher ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY Inga Fischer-Hjalmars was one of the pioneers in the creation of the Swedish school of theoretical Received October chemistry. She started her scientific endeavours in pharmacy and biochemistry, but soon sought a Accepted October deeper understanding of molecules and chemistry. With a genuine experimental background and KEYWORDS quantum chemical skills learned from Charles Coulson in the late 1940s, Inga was well prepared Theoretical chemistry; to continue her research and to contribute to the establishment of theoretical chemistry as it was Quantum chemistry; History later defined by Coulson; the use of quantum mechanics to explain experimental phenomena inall of chemistry; Woman in branches of chemistry. During the 1950s and 1960s Inga made important contributions to our under- science standing of chemical bonding and reactivity. For example, she made key insights into the dissociation of molecular hydrogen, the influence of heteroatoms on dipole moments in organic compounds, the electronic configuration of ozone and on the validity of different approximations in molecular theory. Inga Fischer-Hjalmars and her students developed extensions of the Pariser–Parr–Pople method and during the latter part of her career, she returned to the biomolecules that once had brought her into science, now applying quantum chemical methods to understand bonding and spectral properties of these molecules at greater depth. Early career: pharmacy and lab work it was easy to get a job afterwards and this gave her the possibility to continue with evening classes in chemistry Inga Fischer was born in Stockholm in 1918. The fam- [1,2]. ilyhadatraditionofhighereducationbutratherlim- During her chemistry studies Inga Fischer came in ited finances, so Inga had to get financial support from an contact with the biochemist Hans von Euler-Chelpin, uncle in Denmark to be able to go to college. When she who got the Nobel Prize in 1929 for his work on fermen- wanted to continue to the university, the only option she tation. In his lab, Inga participated in rather fundamental really had was to choose the shortest education possible studies of differences between normal and cancerous cell in the natural sciences, which was to become a pharma- nuclei. One issue that they were especially interested in cist.Thatturnedouttobeacleverchoicethough,because CONTACT Adam Johannes Johansson [email protected] ∗Present Address: Fyrvaktargatan , Norrköping, Sweden Supplemental data for this article can be accessed at http://dx.doi.org/./... © Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group 2 A. J. JOHANSSON was under which physico-chemical conditions cell nuclei She then synthesised a series of aniline derivatives with were stable [3,4]. varying ortho-, meta- and para-substitutions and deter- VonEuler-Chelpinhadhislabatthetopfloorofa mined their dipole moments. Since the apparatus was massive stone building in central Stockholm up at Oden- built in-house, and since the available literature values plan. Down in the basement of the same building, of dipole moments of reference compounds varied due another, then less famous person led some kind of to variations in the way they had been measured, Inga research group, consisting mainly of students and vol- carefully benchmarked her method and re-evaluated the unteers working together under rudimentary conditions. dipole moments of several reference compounds. The sci- NilsLöfgrenwashisnameandhewasonlyinhisearly entific rigor of this work was high and she could con- thirties when Inga joined his work but he was already firm that ortho-substitution indeed caused a change in very determined to make a contribution to the devel- the dipole, which was communicated to Nature in 1950 opment of pharmaceutics. The group studied inhibition [9,10]. of enzymes and noteworthy the mechanism of action of Still, Inga Fischer was aiming at something even penicillin on diphtheria was investigated as early as in more fundamental and together with Lars Ehrenberg, 1945. Interestingly, they disagreed with Pascal Jordan, she started to work on hydrogen bonding. In the 1940s, who had a theory that similar groups were needed to there was a quite lively discussion about the existence form enzyme-substrate complexes and achieve what he and nature of hydrogen bonds, the question was whether referred to as ‘atomic resonance’ [5,6]. In Löfgren’s group, theyexistedasaspecifictypeofinteractionandtowhat Ingahadarrivedinanenvironmentwhereonewasclearly extent they could be explained by electrostatics. Inga and thinking about the details. Lars contributed to this discussion by studying the solu- ButthebigthinginLöfgren’sgroupwasthatthey bility of water in different ethers. Using volumetric data developed the local anaesthetic Xylocaine, or Lidocaine and dipole moments, they could estimate the effects of as it is also known. Nils Löfgren and his close collabo- hydrogen bonding versus dipole–dipole interactions on rator Bengt Lundquist had already discovered Xylocaine the solubility. They could show that the availability of when Inga Fischer joined the group but she had an impor- unshared electrons at the heteroatom affected the solu- tant role in the early development and evaluation of Xylo- bility of the ether and suggested that the solubility was caine [2,7]. In order to evaluate the local anaesthetic explained by hydrogen bonding rather than by purely effect of Xylocaine, something which the colleagues did electrostatic dipole–dipole interactions [11,12]. Interest- by injections in their own fingertips, it was necessary ingly, Inga referred to quantum mechanics already in her to have larger amounts of the compound than Löfgren early experimental papers, in 1948 she wrote [12]: had before. The synthesis was tricky and there was at the time a lack of the starting material 2,6-xylidine. Löfgren Otherwise, the polarizabilities [of the unshared electrons trusted Inga and knew that she was skilled in the lab, and of the heteroatom] might be calculated, if possible, with so it came about that Inga Fischer made the first syn- the aid of quantum mechanics, or the whole problem might be treated through a direct study of the wave func- thesis of Xylocaine on a larger scale. Anyway, Xylocaine tions involved. did work, Löfgren and Lundquist got a patent, and the rights were sold to Astra. A few years after being released, Xylocaine overtook the world market of local anaesthet- Into the quantum ics,NilsLöfgrenbecameoneoftherichestprivatepersons in Sweden for a few years, and the rest is history [8]. While working as a chemist, Inga took classes in physics For Inga Fischer, it must have been a fantastic expe- and came in contact with the theoretical physicist Oskar rience to take part in all this as a young pharmacist and Klein. Klein made many important contributions to the chemistry student. But although Löfgren wanted her to development of quantum mechanics and cosmology, but continue with drug discovery, Inga was more interested his only direct contribution to chemistry was that he in understanding exactly why Xylocaine worked as well derived the solutions for the Schrödinger equation of the as it did. Early on, when the group was synthesising vari- asymmetric rotor. Inga became good friends with Klein ous derivatives of Xylocaine, they had a working hypoth- and his family, and Klein was acknowledged in much of esis that the local anaesthetic effect had something to Inga’s early theoretical work. do with the fact that Xylocaine, 2-(diethylamino)-N-(2,6- Another person that influenced Inga’s further scien- dimethylphenyl)acetamide, was ortho-substituted on the tific development was the Nobel laureate Arne Tiselius, he benzene ring, which in turn affected its dipole moment. recognised the talent of the young woman and her unique In order to test this hypothesis, Inga learned how to con- scientific interests that were only poorly represented in struct an apparatus for measuring dielectric constants. Sweden. Tiselius, who was also a chairman of the Swedish MOLECULAR PHYSICS 3 Research Council, sent Inga to a conference in Paris to find herself a mentor and to learn quantum chemistry [1,13]. The conference La Liaison Chimique,heldinParisin 1948, was attended by several of the leading theoreti- cians of the time, including Robert Mulliken and Linus Pauling,thePullmancouple,LouisedeBroglie,V.C. Raman and the Englishman