- Department of Chemistry
- Lensfield Road
- Cambridge CB2 1EW, UK
- Tel.: +44(1223)336377
- email: df246@cam.ac.uk
2023 Edition of "Understanding Molecular Simulation"
Research
My research focuses on numerical simulations of many-body systems, with special emphasis on problems relating to the prediction of stability and kinetics in complex self-assembly in soft and biological materials.
I develop novel algorithms when I need them.
Main aspects of research
- Developing novel Monte Carlo techniques to predict the thermodynamic stability of complex structures (e.g. DNA-coated colloids (fig 1) ).
- Exploring novel dynamical simulation techniques to predict the rate at which novel structures form from a meta-stable parent phase (e.g. crystal nucleation – fig 2).
- Quantifying the disorder in granular packings.
- Exploring the microscopic origins of phoretic transport.
- Exploring the role of multivalent binding in biological and colloidal materials.
Daan Frenkel (1948) - Emeritus Professor of Chemistry
EDUCATION
1966 - 1977 University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, NL
Degrees: Masters degree Physical Chemistry, 1972
PhD Physical Chemistry, 1977
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2007-2015: 1968 Professor of Theoretical Chemistry, U Cambridge
1977 - 1980 UCLA Los Angeles, CA, USA Postdoctoral Research Fellow Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
Research Scientist Department of Separation Technology.
Group Leader
Started computational-physics research line.
Professor (part time)
Associated with the Van ‘t Hoff laboratory for Colloid Science.
Professor (part time)
Associated with the Van ‘t Hoff Institute for Molecular Science.
HONOURS , AWARDS AND NAMED LECTURES
2019: NTNU Lars Onsager Medal and Visiting Professorship
2019: Bragg Lecture, University College London
2018: C.V. Raman Memorial Lecture 2018, IISc, Bangalore, India.
2018: ICTS-Infosys Chandrasekhar Lectures, Bangalore, India
2017: Cohen Lectures, Northwestern University, Evanston , IL, USA
2016: Elected Honorary Fellow of Trinity College Cambridge
2016: Sir Eric Rideal Lecture of the SCI/RSC.
2016: Elected Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences (USA)
2016: Boltzmann Medal (IUPAP)
2015: Bakhuis-Roozeboom medal - Netherlands Academy of Sciences
2013: Member of the Academia Europaea
2013: Hinshelwood Lectures, Oxford University
2012: Robert Scott Lecture, University of Californian at Los Angeles.
2012: Elected Associate Fellow of TWAS – The World Academy of Sciences
2012: Spiers Memorial Award Award of the Royal Society of Chemistry
2011: Joseph E Hirschfelder Prize, U. Wisconsin at Madison (USA)
2011: Concurrent Professor, Nanjing University (China)
2011: Robert S. Mulliken Memorial Lecture, U. Chicago (USA)
2011: Fritz London Memorial Lecture, Duke University (USA)
2010: Pitzer Lecturer, U.C. Berkeley (USA)
2010: Soft Matter & Biophysical Chemistry Award of the Royal Society of Chemistry
2010: Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK).
2008: Elected Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences
2008: Awarded ERC Advanced grant.
2007: Aneesur Rahman Prize for Computational Physics of the American Physical Society
2007: Laughlin Lecturer, Department of Chemistry, Cornell University (USA)
2007: Honorary Doctorate, University of Edinburgh (UK)
2007: Berni Alder-CECAM prize of the European Physical Society.
2007: Royal Society Wolfson Merit Award
2006: Kivelson Memorial Lecture, Dept. of Chem. and Biochem., UCLA, (USA)
2006: Wohl Memorial Lecture, Dept. of Chem. Eng, U. Delaware (USA)
2006: Elected Foreign Member Royal Society (London).
2005: Honorary Professor, Beijing University of Chemical Technology (CN)
2004: Rothschild Professor, University of Cambridge (UK)
2002: Elected Member of the “Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschap-pen” (NL)
2002: First UCLA Distinguished Lecturer in Engineering (USA)
2000: NWO Spinoza Award (NL)
1999: Bourke lecturer & medalist, Royal Society of Chemistry (UK).
1999: James Franck Institute Distinguished Lecturer. U. Chicago (USA)
1999: Eli Burstein Lecture in Materials Science, U. Pennsylvania (USA)
1998: Elected member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences (NL)
1998: Regents lecturer. University of California at Los Angeles (USA).
1997: Lennard-Jones lecture of the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK).
1997: Physica lecture and Prize of the Dutch Physical Society.
1984: Visiting lecturer at the K.U. Leuven (Belgium)
1975: Shell graduate-student travel award
1969: Unilever Undergraduate Chemistry award.
Daan Frenkel has published well over 500 papers. His research focuses on molecular simulations in the area of soft and biological matter.
Together with Berend Smit, he wrote "Understanding Molecular Simulation". This book has been translated into Chinese and Russian.
Publications
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