Dear users and friends of TURBOMOLE,
Almost 20 years ago we began the development of a quantum chemistry package for UNIX workstations, which then became TURBOMOLE. Thanks to a number of excellent students, post-docs, and some external help, TURBOMOLE evolved into a highly efficient and stable code widely used in academia and industry. We consider this a reward for our efforts to provide tools for the treatment of large molecules on small computers.
With the decision to make TURBOMOLE available for the scientific community, we faced a dilemma: a university research group could dedicate only limited resources to improving user friendliness and providing professional support. I always considered it desirable to separate the scientific method development from other services, which are better provided by a commercial company. For this reason, it was decided (by myself, my successor Wim Klopper, and the University of Karlsruhe) to transfer a major part of the TURBOMOLE coordination, management, and distribution responsibilities to COSMOlogic GmbH & CoKG. The copyrights as well as the scientific supervision remain at the University of Karlsruhe, i.e. they remain my responsibility until I retire in 2008. This change will be effective on October 1st, 2005.
COSMOlogic is a small computational chemistry company in Leverkusen, founded by Dr. Andreas Klamt in 1999. In addition to, and integrated with, its main products, which are programs for fluid phase thermodynamics based on quantum chemical calculations, COSMOlogic has already become a very successful re-seller of TURBOMOLE over the last 5 years. During that time mutual trust has grown between Dr. Klamt and myself.
I am sure that by his fortunate combination of scientific commitment with business skills, COSMOlogic will become a safe and successful home for TURBOMOLE, providing the required resources for its maintenance, distribution, and user support, and for the coordination of the scientific developments. I am very glad that all of the present co-developers of TURBOMOLE as well as my academic successor, Wim Klopper, have agreed to collaborate with COSMOlogic for the sake of a good future of the TURBOMOLE program.
Dear friends, I wish to express my sincere hope and conviction that you will also appreciate our arrangement for the future of TURBOMOLE and that you will successfully collaborate with COSMOlogic in the usage of TURBOMOLE.
Prof. Dr. Reinhart Ahlrichs
Theoretische Chemie
Universität Karlsruhe (TH)
D 76128 Germany