Berni J. Alder CECAM Prize

The Berni J. Alder CECAM Prize had been set up in order to distinguish a scientist having made exceptional contributions to the field of microscopic simulation of matter. This is the most prestigious European prize for computer simulation in statistical physics and physical chemistry. The €5000 prize, awarded every two years, was originally created in 1999 by CECAM.

Prize winners

2007 - Daan Frenkel

The prize was awarded during CCP2007, held in Brussels, Belgium, September 5-8, 2007.

2004 - Mike Klein

At the occasion of the CCP 2004 conference held in Genova, a ceremony took place for the award of the 2004 Berni J. Alder CECAM prize to professor Mike Klein. Michel Mareschal, CECAM director recalled the history of the prize and the importance it has taken in the last years in the Computational Condensed Matter community. Berni J. Alder presented the prize to Mike L. Klein, and, in his presentation reminded the audience of his past collaboration with Mike Klein. Professor Mike Klein, after receiving the award, made a presentation called "Genova to Genova: a 40-year journey in computation", ending with the following recommendation : "pursue your dreams".

During the past decade, computer simulations have transformed Chemical Physics and Materials Science. Computer Simulation has become an essential tool to predict and analyze the properties of complex (bio)materials. This development is the culmination of four decades of pioneering work that laid the foundations of this field. Professor Klein belongs to the small group of brilliant scientists who transformed Molecular Dynamics from a tool in Theoretical Physics to the workhorse of what is now commonly referred to as "Computational Materials Science". No single person has contributed on a broader front to the application of Molecular Dynamics and Monte Carlo simulations to practical problems in many different areas of science.

Mike Klein's leadership has been crucial in the development of a variety of computational tools such as constant-temperature Molecular Dynamics, Quantum simulations (specifically path-integral simulations), extended-Lagrangian methods and multiple-timestep Molecular Dynamics. Professor Klein's contributions are widely recognized, well beyond the community of computer simulators. He has made important contributions to the numerical study of molecular solids and liquids, hydrogen-bonded liquids, chain molecules, self-assembled monolayers and, more recently, ion channels and biological membranes. Finally, Professor Klein has played a key role in building and maintaining a strong link between the North American and European scientific communities.

2004 - Kurt Binder

Professor Kurt Binder from the University of Mainz was awarded the Berni J. Alder CECAM prize on September 6th, 2001, at the Conference on Computational Physics (CCP 2001) in Aachen, for pioneering the development of the Monte Carlo method as a quantitative tool in Statistical Physics and for catalyzing its application in many areas of physical research.

Kurt Binder's name is synonymous with Monte Carlo computer simulations because he established this technique as a quantitative methodology in statistical physics, an achievement that marked the turning point from qualitative to quantitative analysis. The combination of quantitative Monte Carlo simulations coupled with analytical theory allowed Binder to make contributions to many different fields of statistical and condensed matter physics.

• Lattice gas and Ising systems and their phase diagrams
• Ordering phenomena in monolayers and interfacial phenomena
• Ferroelectrics
• Polymers statics, dynamics, and phase behavior
• Surface critical phenomena and wetting
• Random systems, spin-, quadrupolar-, and structural glasses
• Dynamic interpretation of stochastic Monte Carlo processes
• Phase separation kinetics, spinodal decomposition, and nucleation
• Dynamics of first and second order phase transitions

In all these fields Binder's contributions are widely recognized. The methods Binder pioneered have had very broad applicability and the impact and influence of his work has been truly enormous.

Professor Binder receives the award for his seminal contributions to the solution of analytically intractable problems which also stretch experimental investigation to the limits of feasibility, such as the behaviour of polymers. He already recognised the potential of Monte-Carlo computer simulation as a means of tackling this type of problem in the early '70s, and was instrumental in establishing this method as a valid scientific approach.

The methods developed by Professor Binder to assess the statistical accuracy of simulation data and the effects of finite system size, as well as the systematic non-perturbative analysis of fluctuations, now comprise an essential part of the theoretical physicists' toolbox. In this respect, Kurt Binder must be regarded as a pioneer of the 'third' pillar of physics alongside theory and experiment.

Professor Binder (57) received his Ph.D. in Wien, his habilitation degree at the Technical University of Munich, before taking up a post as Professor at the University of Saarbruecken. For six years, he was head of the Institute for Solid State Research at the Research Center Juelich, prior to taking his present post at the University of Mainz in 1983.

1999 - Giovanni Ciccotti

Giovanni Ciccotti has made pioneering contributions to molecular dynamics: among other methods, we cite the non-equilibrium subtraction technique to study transport phenomena, the method of holonomic constraints to deal with rigid molecular models in cartesian coordinates, routinely used world-wide and recently extended to study rare events with applications to chemical reactions in liquids. Besides these methodological contributions, Giovanni Ciccotti has applied molecular dynamics to a very broad range of physical and chemical and, recently, biological problems. He highly deserves recognition by the computational science community for his deep and clear thinking. He has played a key role of leadership through his timely summer schools and books and has helped shaping the outlook and work of a whole generation of scientists in the field of computer simulation.

Berni Alder added the following comment at the Prize ceremony, during the 30th anniversary conference :

"I am profoundly touched to have a prize named after me and extremely pleased to be able to present it to such an outstanding contributor to the field. As is natural, we have in fact at times been vigourous rivals. I have found Giovanni always a worthy sparring partner, intellectually totally honest, if somewhat reluctant to admit the limitations of his approach. One instance of this is the subtraction method to calculate transport coefficients as mentionned in the citation. We have developed an alternative method which is somewhat time-consuming to evaluate but stable at long times. Giovanni's approach is fast but not practical at long times because the subtraction becomes exponentially large at long times. Such intellectual sparring has led to a deep respect on my part to Giovanni and I am glad to say a delightful friendship over many years. I distinguish between two kinds of people working in this field. There are originators and consumers of algorithms. The best of these are those who consume their own algorithms to crack major problems. Giovanni is one of those and example of that is the constraint algorithm he developed to deal with more realistic models of molecules - polymers not spheres. The measure of his success is that it lead to an entire industry of consumers. "