Christian Møller

{{Short description|Danish scientist}}

{{Infobox scientist

| image = Møller,Christian 1963 Kopenhagen.jpg

| caption = Christian Møller, 1963 at Copenhagen

| birth_date = {{birth date|1904|12|22|df=y}}

| birth_place = Hundslev, Als, Denmark

| death_date = {{death date and age|1980|01|14|1904|12|22|df=y}}

| death_place = Ordrup, Denmark

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| fields = Theoretical physics

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| known_for = Møller scattering
Møller tetrad theory of gravitation
Møller velocity
Møller–Plesset perturbation theory
Kottler–Møller coordinates

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| awards = Ørsted Medal (1970)

}}

File:Solvay conference 1951 g.jpg on Physics in Brussels 1951. Left to right, sitting: Crussaro, Allen, Cauchois, Borelius, Bragg, Møller, Sietz, Hollomon, Frank; middle row: {{ill|Gerhart Rathenau|nl}}, Koster, {{ill|Erik Rudberg|sv|Erik Rudberg (fysiker)}}, Flamache, Goche, Groven, Orowan, Burgers, Shockley, Guinier, C.S. Smith, {{ill|Ulrich Dehlinger|lt=Dehlinger|de|Ulrich Dehlinger}}, Laval, Henriot; top row: Gaspart, Lomer, Cottrell, Homes, Curien]]

Christian Møller (22 December 1904, 14 January 1980) was a Danish chemist and physicist who made fundamental contributions to the theory of relativity, theory of gravitation and quantum chemistry.{{cite book |last1=Turkevich|first1=John|last2=Turkevich|first2=Ludmilla|title=Prominent scientists of continental Europe|url=https://openlibrary.org/b/OL5611918M/Prominent-scientists-of-continental-Asia|year=1980|publisher=Elsevier |isbn=0-444-00046-1}} He is known for Møller–Plesset perturbation theory{{cite journal|last=Kragh|first=Helge|year=1992|title=Relativistic Collisions: The Work of Christian Møller in the Early 1930s|journal=Arch. Hist. Exact Sci.|volume=43|pages=299–328|doi=10.1007/BF00374762|issue=4|s2cid=121494792}} and Møller scattering.

His suggestion in 1938 to Otto Frisch that the newly discovered process of nuclear fission might create surplus energy, led Frisch to conceive of the concept of the nuclear chain reaction, leading to the Frisch–Peierls memorandum, which kick-started the development of nuclear energy through the MAUD Committee and the Manhattan Project.* {{cite book|last=Frisch|first=Otto Robert |author-link=Otto Frisch |title=What Little I Remember|url=https://archive.org/details/whatlittleiremem0000fris|url-access=registration|year=1979 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-0-521-28010-5 |oclc=911308407 | page=118}}

Møller was the director of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)'s Theoretical Study Group between 1954 and 1957 and later a member of the same organization's Scientific Policy Committee (1959–1972).{{cite web|url=http://archon.nbi.dk/?p=creators/creator&id=12|title=Møller, Christian (1904–1980)|publisher=Niels Bohr Archive|first=Felicity|last=Pors|access-date=2019-07-12}}