Computational chemistry has become extremely important in academic and industrial research. However, there have been few books designed to teach the subject to non-specialists. This work provides an overview of the field, explains the basic underlying theory at a meaningful level that is not beyond beginners gives numerous comparisons of different methods. The large number of references, to all significant topics mentioned, should make this book useful not only to undergraduates but also to graduate students and academic and industrial researchers.

Table of Contents:
1: An outline of what computational chemistry is all about. 1.1. What you can do with computational chemistry. 1.2. The tools of computational chemistry. 1.3. Putting it all together. 1.4. The philosophy of computational chemistry. 1.5. Summary of Chapter 1. References. 2: The concept of the potential energy surface. 2.1. Perspective. 2.2. Stationary points. 2.3. The Born-Oppenheimer approximation. 2.4. Geometry optimization. 2.5. Stationary points and normal-mode vibrations. Zero point energy. 2.6. Symmetry. 2.7. Summary. References. 3: Molecular mechanics. 3.1. Perspective. 3.2. The basic principles of molecular mechanics. 3.3. Examples of the use of molecular mechanics. 3.4. Geometries calculated by MM. 3.5. Frequencies calculated by MM. 3.6. Strengths and weaknesses of molecular mechanics. 3.7. Summary of chapter 3. References. 4: Introduction to quantum mechanics in computational chemistry. 4.1. Perspective. 4.2. The development of quantum mechanics. The Schrodinger equation. 4.3. The application of the Schrodinger equation to chemistry by Huckel. 4.4. The Extended Huckel Method. 4.5. Summary of chapter 4. References. M 5: Ab initio calculations. 5.1. Perspective. 5.2. The basic principles of the ab initio method. 5.3. Basis sets. 5.4. Post-Hartree-Fock Calculations: electron correlation. 5.5. Applications of the ab initio method. 5.6. Strengths and weaknesses of ab initio calculations. 5.7. Summary of chapter 5. References. 6: Semiempirical calculations. 6.1. Perspective. 6.2. The basic principles of SCF semiempirical methods. 6.3. Applications of semiempirical methods. 6.4. Strengths and weaknesses of semiempirical methods. 6.5. Summary of chapter 6. References. 7: Density functional calculations. 7.1. Perspective. 7.2. The basic principles of density functional theory. 7.3. Applications of density functional theory. 7.4. Strengths and weaknesses of DFT. 7.5. Summary of chapter 7. References. 8: Literature, software, books and websites. 8.1. From the literature. 8.2. To the literature. 8.3. Software and hardware. Postscript. References. Index.