William Andrew Goddard III

William A. Goddard III was born in El Centro California and lived his early years in farm towns across California (El Centro, Delano, Indio, Lodi, Oildale, MacFarland, Firebaugh, also Yuma AZ), where his dad made the wooden boxes used to ship agricultural products. He always dreamed of living in Los Angeles. He has four children (Bill, Suzy, Cecilia, Lisa) and has been married for 58 years. ==Career==

He joined the chemistry faculty at Caltech in November 1964 where he remains today as a professor and researcher. After his Ph.D. he remained at the California Institute of Technology as Arthur Amos Noyes Research Fellow (1964–66), Professor of Theoretical Chemistry (1967–78) and Professor of Chemistry & Applied Physics (1978-). Goddard has made many contributions to theoretical chemistry, such as the generalized valence bond (GVB) method for ab initio electronic structure calculations and the ReaxFF force field for classical molecular dynamics simulations. He is a member of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. == References ==