In this thesis we use the recently developed dynamical mean-field approximation to study problems in strongly correlated electron systems, including high-Tc cuprate superconductors as well as a few quantum chemical reference systems. We start with an introduction to the background of the interacting electron systems, followed by a brief description on the current understanding of the physics of high-Tc cuprate superconductors. The approximate models that enter the theoretical framework will be discussed afterwards. Some quantum chemical methods for many-body quantum systems are included for review. Next we present the numerical methods employed in our study. The formalism of the dynamical mean-field approximation will be introduced including the single-site and cluster versions, followed by the Exact Diagonalization impurity solver for the solution of the quantum impurity model. Maximum Entropy analytic continuation method is also discussed, which is useful to obtain the physically relevant response functions.

Then we apply dynamical mean-field approximation to high-Tc cuprate superconductors. The two-particle response functions, such as Raman scattering intensity and optical conductivity, are computed for the two dimensional Hubbard model. The calculations include the vertex corrections which are essential to obtain physically reasonable results in interacting electron systems. We also study the physics of the pseudogap in cuprates. The suppression of density of states near Fermi surface is present in our calculations, which is in qualitative agreement with the experimental data. Finally we discuss the application of dynamical mean-field theory to quantum chemistry. We extend the formalism of dynamical mean-field approximation to finite systems, and compare its performance in hydrogen clusters with different spatial configurations to other leading quantum chemical approaches. Dynamical mean-field theory involves mapping onto a quantum impurity model. We further examine the quantum impurity model representation of the transition metal dioxide molecules. The conceptual and technical difficulties will be discussed.