Professor Emeritus Vladimir E. Bondybey, Technical University of Munich, Germany, passed away on July 6, 2020. He was well known for his spectroscopy research on the structure and reactivity of molecules, radicals, ions, and clusters in the gas phase or in low-temperature matrices.

Vladimir E. Bondybey was born on January 4, 1940, in Prague, today’s Czech Republic. He studied chemistry at the Universities of Prague and Rostock, Germany, from 1963 to 1968, and at the University of California, Berkeley, USA, from 1969 to 1972. He received an RNDr. degree from the University of Prague and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1971. Vladimir E. Bondybey joined Oregon State University, Corvallis, USA, as a postdoctoral researcher in 1972. From 1973 to 1986, he was a researcher at AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ, USA, and from 1985 on, he served as Professor of Chemistry at Ohio State University, Columbus, USA. In 1989, Vladimir Bondybey became Professor of Physical Chemistry at the Technical University of Munich. He remained there until his retirement in 2005.

Bondybey was a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS).

Selected Publications

• Photophysics of low lying electronic states of Cl₂ in rare gas solids,
  V. E. Bondybey, C. Fletcher,
  J. Chem. Phys. 1976, 64, 3615–3620.
  https://doi.org/10.1063/1.432713
• Laser induced fluorescence of metal clusters produced by laser vaporization: Gas phase spectrum of Pb₂,
  V. E. Bondybey, J. H. English,
  J. Chem. Phys. 1981, 74, 6978–6979.
  https://doi.org/10.1063/1.441064
• Electronic structure and vibrational frequency of Cr₂,
  V. E. Bondybey, J. H. English,
  Chem. Phys. Lett. 1983, 94, 443–447.
  https://doi.org/10.1016/0009-2614(83)85029-5
• Electronic structure and bonding of Be₂,
  V. E. Bondybey,
  Chem. Phys. Lett. 1984, 109, 436–441.
  https://doi.org/10.1016/0009-2614(84)80339-5
• Reactions of simple hydrocarbons with Nb⁺_n: Chemisorption and physisorption on ionized niobium clusters,
  C. Berg, T. Schindler, G. Niedner‐Schatteburg, V. E. Bondybey,
  J. Chem. Phys. 1995, 102, 4870–4884.
  https://doi.org/10.1063/1.469535
• New Developments in Matrix Isolation Spectroscopy,
  V. E. Bondybey, A. M. Smith, J. Agreiter,
  Chem. Rev. 1996, 96, 2113–2134.
  https://doi.org/10.1021/cr940262h
• Reactions of Hydrated Electrons (H₂O)_n⁻ with Carbon Dioxide and Molecular Oxygen: Hydration of the CO₂⁻ and O₂⁻ Ions,
  O. P. Balaj, C.-K. Siu, I. Balteanu, M. K. Beyer, V. E. Bondybey,
  Chem. Eur. J. 2004, 10, 4822–4830.
  https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.200400416
• Catalytic Oxidation of CO with N₂O on Gas-Phase Platinum Clusters,
  O. P. Balaj, I. Balteanu, T. T. J. Roßteuscher, M. K. Beyer, V. E. Bondybey,
  Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2004, 43, 6519–6522.
  https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.200461215
• Beryllium Dimer—Caught in the Act of Bonding,
  J. M. Merritt, V. E. Bondybey, M. C. Heaven,
  Science 2009, 324, 1548–1551.
  https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1174326