Dr. Milan Randić stands as a world-renowned computational chemist whose pioneering work has reshaped the intersection of mathematics and chemistry. Born in Belgrade on October 1, 1930, he completed his theoretical physics studies at the University of Zagreb in 1953 and earned his PhD from Cambridge University in 1959 with research on molecular vibrational spectroscopy. He founded the Theoretical Chemistry Group at the Ruđer Bošković Institute in Zagreb in 1960, establishing himself as Croatia's first theoretical chemist. His career trajectory expanded internationally when he became a visiting professor at prestigious US institutions including Harvard, MIT, and Johns Hopkins between 1971 and 1980, before settling as a professor at Drake University where he remained until 1997.
Randić's most transformative contribution to science is the development of the connectivity index, which has become the most powerful numerical tool for modeling quantitative structure-property relationships in chemistry. His groundbreaking application of discrete mathematics and graph theory to molecular structure characterization, initiated during his 1973 collaboration with Professor E. Bright Wilson at Harvard, revolutionized chemical graph theory and created entirely new methodologies for analyzing molecular structures. This mathematical framework has found extensive applications across medicinal chemistry, environmental science, and pharmaceutical research, demonstrating remarkable predictive power for chemical properties. His later work since 2000 has successfully extended these approaches to bioinformatics, developing graphical representations and numerical characterizations for DNA, proteins, and the proteome that have advanced computational biology.
As the founder of the International Academy of Mathematical Chemistry in 2005, Randić has cultivated a global community dedicated to advancing the mathematical foundations of chemical science. His enduring legacy includes prestigious honors such as the Herman Skolnik Award (1996) and the Grand Pregel Award from Slovenia's National Institute of Chemistry, where he maintains an active visiting professorship despite his emeritus status at Drake University. Through decades of collaboration with researchers at the National Institute of Chemistry in Ljubljana, he has significantly influenced European chemical research while mentoring generations of scientists in the field of mathematical chemistry. Now in his tenth decade, Dr. Randić continues to contribute to the field through his ongoing work on molecular profiles and his visionary interest in developing Nobel, a universal ideographic writing system that reflects his lifelong commitment to interdisciplinary innovation.
