David Buckingham is an Australian, who is distinguished as a physical and theoretical chemist. He has made seminal contributions to our knowledge of optical, electric and magnetic properties of molecules, intermolecular forces and chirality, and is a world leader in these areas. He invented and implemented a method of measuring molecular quadrupole moments. He made the first observations of differential Raman scattering of circularly polarized light by chiral molecules. He currently works on chirality in NMR spectroscopy and on hydrogen bonding. He has had continuing strong connections with his native Australia, through a stream of Australian research students and postdoctoral associates as well as through frequent scientific visits.