Photo courtesy of Nathan Pitt
The Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences has awarded its 2015 Bakhuis Roozeboom Medal to Head of Department Professor Daan Frenkel, for the outstanding contribution of his creative computer simulations to the development of phase theory.
Phase theory
Prof Frenkel’s work in the field of computational physical chemistry, which uses computer simulations to mimic physical and chemical processes, is internationally renowned, and has led to new separation methods for the petrochemicals industry. Prof Frenkel's classic work, Understanding Molecular Simulation, co-authored with Berend Smit, has introduced whole generations of young researchers to the world of computer simulations.
The jury of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, said "Daan Frenkel's achievements are impressive because his creative computer simulations have opened up and mapped out new territory in phase theory. His research underpins a large number of theoretical and experimental studies on the behaviour of suspensions, fluids containing insoluble spherical, rod-shaped, and discoidal particles."
About the Bakhuis Roozeboom medal
The Bakhuis Roozeboom Medal in the area of the Physical Sciences is awarded only once every 5 years to researchers who have made significant contributions to phase theory, the science that studies the behaviour of matter under changing circumstances of pressure, temperature and composition. Phase theory can be applied in physical chemistry, physics, metallurgy, geochemistry, and astrophysics. The medal was established in 1911 to recognise the work of the physicist Prof. H.W. Bakhuis Roozeboom (1854-1907).
Award ceremony
The award ceremony will take place in January 2016 in Amsterdam, during a symposium focusing on Prof Frenkel's research.