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Alex Zunger is a computational physicist. He received the Aneesur Rahman Prize for Computational Physics in 2001. The Aneesur Rahman prize is the highest honor given by the American Physical Society for work in computational physics.

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http://www.aps.org/programs/honors/prizes/prizerecipient.cfm?name=Alex%20Zunger&year=2001

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+'''Alex Zunger''' is a computational [[physicist]].  He received the [[Aneesur Rahman Prize for Computational Physics]] in 2001.  The [[Aneesur Rahman]] prize is the highest honor given by the [[American Physical Society]] for work in computational [[physics]].
-{{wikify|date=June 2010}}
-'''Alex Zunger'''
-Alex Zunger - Recipient of the Rahman Prize of the American Physica Society, 2001.
-Alex Zunger received the Rahman Prize of the American Physical Society in 2001.  The citation to Zunger's award reads:
-''"For his pioneering work on the computational basis for first-principles electronic structure theory of solids."
-This award, centering on a different aspect of Zunger's work than the Bardeen Award, focuses on Zunger's development of first-principles methodologies for predicting properties of solids. These include: (i) The early development of first-principles LDA atomic pseudopotentials [Topiol, Zunger, Ratner, Chem. Phys. Lett. 49, 367 (1977) and Zunger and Cohen, Phys. Rev. B 18 5449 (1978)]; (ii) the pseudopotential total energy and force methods [Ihm, Zunger and Cohen, J. Phys. C 12, 4409 (1979); (iii) the strategy of simultaneous relaxation of atomic positions and electronic charge densities, a precursor to Car-Parrinello [Bendt and Zunger, Phys. Rev. Lett. 50 , 1684 (1983)]; (iv) accurate exchange-correlation functional; (v) the self-interaction correction (Perdew and Zunger, Phys. Rev. B 23, 5048 (1981)], and; (vi) mixed-basis cluster expansion for prediction of ground state crystal structures and the temperature-composition phase-diagram of alloys. Other areas of interest of A. Zunger include photovoltaic materials, spontaneous ordering in solids (the subject of the year 2001 Bardeen Award) and quantum nanostructures and. Zunger's research at NREL is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science, Basic Energy Science, Division of Materials Science, and by DOE's Photovoltaic Program.''
-Previous recipients of this award include Ken Wilson (1993), John Dawson (1994), Roberto Car and Michele Parrinello (1995), Steve Louie (1996), Donald Weingarten (1997), David Ceperley (1998), Michael Klein (1999) and Michael Creutz (2000).
-This award will be presented to A. Zunger at the annual APS meeting in Boston, MA, on June 25, 2001. The announcement will appear in the March 2001 issues of the APS News.
-Source Link:  *http://www.aps.org/programs/honors/prizes/prizerecipient.cfm?name=Alex%20Zunger&year=2001
-For information on NREL's Solid State Theory Group see: http://www.sst.nrel.gov
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-Alex Zunger receives Two Prestigious Physics Prizes - Tomassini Physics Prize and the Science Medal of Scola Physica Romana, honoring the tradition of physics research estabished at the university by Nobel laureate Enrico Fermi.  Dr. Zunger will receive the honors in a ceremony on June 14th, at the University of Rome.
-The “Felice Pietro Chisesi e Caterina Tomassoni” Prize is awarded annually to an individual scientist for outstanding achievement in physical sciences. The Science medal that accompanies the Tomassoni prize is intended to honor the tradition of physics research established at the university in the 1920s by Nobel laureate Enrico Fermi.
-The judges announced that Dr. Zunger was selected for: “his fundamental contributions to the development of the Quantum Theory of Real Solids". According to the citation, this foundational work paved the way for Zunger’s development of the concept of, “inverse band structure" in the past 10 years, a work that promises to usher in a new era of material science.
-The citation to Zunger's award reads:
-''"Awardee: Dr. Alex Zunger
-National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Boulder (Colorado), USA
-Motivation:
-For his fundamental contributions to the development of the Quantum Theory of Real Solids by developing: in 1977 the first.principles atomic pseudopotentials for the Density-Functional Theory introduced by Walter Kohn, in 1978 the Total-Energy method, in 1981, with John Perdew, the Local-Density-Approximation exchange-correlation functional, and in 1983, the method of simultaneous relaxation of atomic positions and charge densities in self.consistent LDA calculations. These foundational methods have enabled the transformation of the quantum equation describing the electronic structure of solids into a tractable form and offered a quantitative understanding of real solids. In the last decade, Alex Zunger has introduced the “Inverse Band Structure” concept, an innovative and revolutionary approach to materials research combining the First-Principles Quantum Theory of Real Solids with biologically inspired phase-space search methods. This approach allows to search for atomic configurations that have a desired target property and thus ushers in a new era of material science. For all these contributions Alex Zunger is one of the reference figures in theoretical physics of the last decades."''
-Source Link:  http://www.phys.uniroma1.it/DipWeb/home.html
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-Alex Zunger received the 2001 John Bardeen Award of the Materials Society (TMS).
-''"Recipient: 2001 John Bardeen Award
-"The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society's John Bardeen Award, established in 1994, recognizes an individual who has made outstanding contributions and is a leader in the field of electronic materials."
-Alex Zunger
-Citation: "For his seminal contributions to the theoretical understanding and prediction of “spontaneous ordering,” phase-stability, and electronic properties of semiconductor alloys; for the impact that this work has had on experimental studies of electronic materials, and for his continued leadership in the field."
-Biography: Alex Zunger is an Institute Research Fellow and leader of the Solid State Theory at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). He received his B.Sc, M.Sc, and Ph.D education at the Tel Aviv University in Israel and did his post-doctoral training at Northwestern University (1975-1977) and (as IBM Fellow) University of California, Berkeley (1977-1978). He joined the newly founded NREL in 1978 where he established the Solid State Theory group and has since trained and collaborated with 35 post-doctoral fellows.  Dr. Zunger is an author of 400 journal publications, including over 85 in Physical Review Letters and Rapid Communication. According to recent research done by the Institute of Scientific Information (ISI), he is the 39th most cited physicist out of more than 500,000 physicists examined, based on publications in 1981-1997 in all branches of physics (his work was cited 8,000 times). His work centers on development and application of first-principles electronic structure theory of real materials. It includes the development of first-principles Pseudopotentials; accurate exchange-correlation functionals; the momentum-space total energy formalism; simultaneous relaxation of atomic positions and electronic wave functions; order N electronic structure approaches; and cluster expansions for alloy thermodynamics. He applied these techniques to metal alloys, quantum semiconductor nanostructures, points defects, and surfaces."''
-Quote: “I am honored and would like to thank my National Renewable Energy Laboratory post-docs and staff for exciting collaborations on this project: J. Bernard, A. Franceschetti, S.Froyen, D. Laks, K. Mader, R. Magri, J.L. Martins, T. Matilla, A. Mbaye, R. Osorio, V. Ozolins, G.P. Srivastava, D.M. Wood, S.H. Wei, and S.B. Zhang.”
-Source Link:  http://www.tms.org/society/Honors/2001/Bardeen2001.html
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-Alex Zunger receives the Johannes Guttengerg Prize of the University of Maniz, Germany.
-The Citation reads:
-''"PROFESSOR ALEX ZUNGER
-GUTENBERG LECTURE AWARD 2009
-ALEX ZUNGER RECEIVED HIS PH.D. FROM TEL-AVIV UNIVERSITY (ISRAEL), WHERE HE WORKED WITH PROF. JOSHUA JORTNER AND BINYAMIN ENGLMAN ON QUANTUM THEORY OF MOLECULAR SOLIDS. HE DID HIS POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCH AT THE PHYSICS DEPT. OF NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY WITH A.J.FREEMAN. HE THEN RECEIVED THE IBM FELLOWSHIP, WHICH HE SPENT AT THE PHYSICS DEPT. OF U.C.BERKELEY WITH M.L.COHEN. ESTABLISHED AND HEADED NREL’S SOLID STATE THEORY GROUP, A POSITION HE STILL HOLDS TODAY. HE MENTORED 65 POST-DOCTORAL FELLOWS AT THE SOLID STATE THOEORY GROUP. CONCOMITANTLY, DR. ZUNGER BECAME A PROF. OF PHYSICS (ADJOINT) AT THE PHYSICS DEPT. AT COLORADO UNIVERSITY, BOULDER UNTIL 1986. AT THE NATIONAL RENEWABLE ENERGY LABORATORY (NREL), HE WAS APPOINTED IN 1984 AS PRINCIPAL SCIENTIST, AND IN 1991 AS AN INSTITUTE RESEARCH FELLOW. HE IS THE AUTHOR 500 REFEREED JOURNAL ARTICLES,
-INCLUDING OVER 120 ARTICLES IN PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS AND RAPID COMMUNICATIONS, ANDTHREE CITATION CLASSICS. ACCORDING TO RECENT RESEARCH DONE BY THE INSTITUTE OF SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION (ISI), HE IS THE 39TH MOST CITED PHYSICIST OUT OF MORE THAN 500,000 PHYSICISTS EXAMINED, BASED ON PUBLICATIONS IN 1981-1997 IN ALL BRANCHES OF PHYSICS ( SEE DESCRIPTION IN : HTTP://WWW.SST.NREL.GOV/CITATIONS/ ).
-RECIPIENT OF THE YEAR 2001 JOHN BARDEEN AWARD OF THE TMS, AND THE YEAR 2001 RAHMAN
-AWARD OF THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY, AND THE YEAR 2000 CORNELL PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL.
-FELLOW OF THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY.AUTHOR OF THE 5 TH HIGHEST-IMPACT PAPER EVER TO BE PUBLISHED IN PHYSICAL REVIEW SINCE 1893. H-INDEX: 86.
-DR. ZUNGER’S RESEARCH FIELD IS CONDENSED MATTER THEORY OF REAL MATERIALS. HE DEVELOPEDTHE FIRST-PRINCIPLES DENSITY FUNCTIONAL PSEUDOPOTENTIALS. CO-DEVELOPED THE MOMENTUM SPACE TOTAL ENERGY METHOD. IN 1981, HE DEVELOPED WITH JOHN PERDEW THE NOW MOST WIDELY USED EXCHANGE AND CORRELATION ENERGY FUNCTIONAL AND THE SELF-INTERACTION CORRECTION.IN 1983, HE DEVELOPED A NOVEL THEORETICAL METHOD FOR SIMULTANEOUS RELAXATION OF ATOMIC
-POSITIONS AND CHARGE DENSITIES IN SELF-CONSISTENT LDA CALCULATIONS. RECENTLY, HE DEVELOPED METHODS FOR CALCULATING THE ELECTRONIC PROPERTIES OF SEMICONDUCTOR QUANTUM NANOSTRUCTURES. THE BARDEEN AWARD WAS GIVEN TO A. ZUNGER ON HIS “SEMINAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE THEORETICAL UNDERSTANDING AND PREDICTION OF “SPONTANEOUS ORDERING” IN ALLOYS WHEREAS THE RAHMAN AWARD WAS GIVEN “FOR HIS PIONEERING WORK ON THE COMPUTATIONAL BASIS FOR FIRST-PRINCIPLES ELECTRONIC STRUCTURE THEORY OF SOLIDS.” HE IS THE WINNER OF THE DOE/MRI 1980 AND 1990 OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT AWARD, AND THE
-DOE-BES AWARD FOR SUSTAINED RESEARCH IN SOLID STATE PHYSICS. HE IS A SEVEN-TIME INVITED SPEAKER TO THE ANNUAL “AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY MARCH MEETING” AND IS A SEVEN-TIME-INVITED SPEAKER TO THE “MATERIALS RESEARCH SOCIETY”. SEE SOLID STATE THEORY HOME PAGE “ AT
-HTTP://NREL.SST.GOV"''
-Source Link:  http://www.mainz.uni-mainz.de/Dateien/Program_Gutenberg_Lecture_Award_2009.pdf
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-Dr. Zunger is the director of the new NREL-led, "Center for Inverse Design", which involves a collaboration of experimentalists and theorists aiming at designing and making materials with given target properties.  Dr. Zunger is the recipient of the 2010 Tomassoni Prize and Science Medal honoring the tradition of E. Fermi, the 2001 TMS John Bardeen Prize, and the 2009 J. Guttenberg Award.  He is the author of more than 150 papers in Physical Review Letters and Rapid Communication, has an “h-number” of 86, and is the author of the 5th highest–impact paper ever to be published in Physical Review since 1893.
-NREL is the U.S. Department of Energy's primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. NREL is operated for DOE by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC.  Visit NREL online at www.nrel.gov
 ==Sources==
 *http://www.aps.org/programs/honors/prizes/prizerecipient.cfm?name=Alex%20Zunger&year=2001
-http://www.phys.uniroma1.it/DipWeb/home.html
-http://www.mainz.uni-mainz.de/Dateien/Program_Gutenberg_Lecture_Award_2009.pdf
-http://www.sst.nrel.gov/media_cov/rahman.html
-http://www.tms.org/society/Honors/2001/Bardeen2001.html
-Visit NREL online at www.nrel.gov
 {{DEFAULTSORT:Zunger, Alex}}
 [[Category:American physicists]]