Berni Alder
{{Short description|American physicist (1925–2020)}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Berni Julian Alder
| image = Berni_Alder.jpg
| birth_date = {{birth date|1925|9|9}}{{cite book|editor1-last=Sleezman|editor1-first=Elizabeth|title=The International Who's Who 2004|date=2004|publisher=Europa Publications|location=England|isbn=1857432177|page=[https://archive.org/details/internationalwho2004ond/page/26 26]|url=https://archive.org/details/internationalwho2004ond/page/26}}
| birth_place = Duisburg, Prussia
| death_date = {{death date and age|2020|9|7|1925|9|9}}[https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/sfgate/obituary.aspx?n=berni-alder&pid=196783721 Berni Alder obituary]
| death_place = El Cerrito, California, US{{Cite web |title=Berni Alder Obituary (2020) - El Cerrito, CA - San Francisco Chronicle |url=https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/sfgate/name/berni-alder-obituary?id=2125189 |website=Legacy.com}}
| nationality = American
| field = Statistical mechanics
| known_for = Molecular dynamics simulation
| alma_mater = {{ubl|University of California at Berkeley|California Institute of Technology}}
| thesis_title = The Radial Distribution Function and the Thermodynamic Properties of Monatomic Liquids
| thesis_year = 1952
| thesis_url = https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechTHESIS:10032017-141351791
| doctoral_advisor = John Gamble Kirkwood
| work_institution = {{ubl|University of California at Berkeley|Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory|University of California at Davis}}
| prizes = {{ubl|Boltzmann Medal (2001)|{{nowrap|National Medal of Science (2009)}}}}
| footnotes =
}}
Berni Julian Alder (September 9, 1925 – September 7, 2020) was a German-born American physicist specialized in statistical mechanics, and a pioneer of computational modelling of matter.{{Cite journal|last=Ceperley|first=David|date=2020-10-08|title=Berni Alder (1925–2020)|journal=Nature|language=en|volume=586|issue=7829|pages=356|doi=10.1038/d41586-020-02858-5|bibcode=2020Natur.586..356C|doi-access=}}{{Cite journal |last1=Battimelli |first1=Giovanni |last2=Ciccotti |first2=Giovanni |date=2018 |title=Berni Alder and the pioneering times of molecular simulation |url=http://link.springer.com/10.1140/epjh/e2018-90027-5 |journal=The European Physical Journal H |language=en |volume=43 |issue=3 |pages=303–335 |doi=10.1140/epjh/e2018-90027-5 |bibcode=2018EPJH...43..303B |issn=2102-6459}}{{Cite journal |last1=Ceperley |first1=David M. |last2=Libby |first2=Stephen B. |date=2021-03-16 |title=Berni Julian Alder, theoretical physicist and inventor of molecular dynamics, 1925–2020 |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |language=en |volume=118 |issue=11 |doi=10.1073/pnas.2024252118 |doi-access=free |issn=0027-8424 |pmc=7980442 |pmid=33622799|bibcode=2021PNAS..11824252C }}
Biography
Alder was born in Duisburg, Prussia, in September 1925, to Jewish parents, a chemist and a homemaker.{{cite web|title=Interview with Berni J. Alder|url=https://www.cecam.org/storage/app/media/Berni_Alder_Interview.pdf|publisher=CECAM|access-date=10 October 2022}} After the Nazis came to power, the family moved to Zurich, Switzerland. Fearing an invasion by Nazi Germany after the outbreak of World War II, the family applied for a visa to the United States, which was granted in 1941. They left by sealed train from neutral Switzerland to (formally neutral) Spain, then to Portugal, where they took a ship to the US. Following a stint in the US Navy after US entry into the war, he obtained a BSc in chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley and a master's degree in chemical engineering from the same institution in 1947. He went to the California Institute of Technology to study under John Gamble Kirkwood for his PhD in 1948 and worked for the investigation of phase transitions in hard-sphere gas with Stan Frankel, where he got the idea to use the Monte Carlo method.
After he finished at Caltech in 1952, Alder went to Berkeley and worked part-time at Berkeley to teach chemistry and part-time as a consultant under the suggestion of Edward Teller in the nuclear weapons program for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to help with the equations of state. In collaboration with Thomas Everett Wainwright, and Mary Ann Mansigh, he developed techniques for molecular dynamics simulation in the mid-1950s,{{Cite journal |last1=Alder |first1=B. J. |last2=Wainwright |first2=T. E. |date=1959-08-01 |title=Studies in Molecular Dynamics. I. General Method |url=https://pubs.aip.org/jcp/article/31/2/459/1031509/Studies-in-Molecular-Dynamics-I-General-Method |journal=The Journal of Chemical Physics |language=en |volume=31 |issue=2 |pages=459–466 |doi=10.1063/1.1730376 |bibcode=1959JChPh..31..459A |issn=0021-9606}} including the liquid-solid phase transition for hard sphere{{Cite journal |last1=Alder |first1=B. J. |last2=Wainwright |first2=T. E. |date=1957-11-01 |title=Phase Transition for a Hard Sphere System |url=https://pubs.aip.org/jcp/article/27/5/1208/204728/Phase-Transition-for-a-Hard-Sphere-System |journal=The Journal of Chemical Physics |language=en |volume=27 |issue=5 |pages=1208–1209 |doi=10.1063/1.1743957 |bibcode=1957JChPh..27.1208A |issn=0021-9606}} and the velocity autocorrelations function decay in liquids.{{Cite journal |last1=Alder |first1=B. J. |last2=Wainwright |first2=T. E. |date=1962-07-15 |title=Phase Transition in Elastic Disks |url=https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRev.127.359 |journal=Physical Review |language=en |volume=127 |issue=2 |pages=359–361 |doi=10.1103/PhysRev.127.359 |bibcode=1962PhRv..127..359A |osti=4798469 |issn=0031-899X}}{{Cite journal |last1=Alder |first1=B. J. |last2=Wainwright |first2=T. E. |date=1970-01-01 |title=Decay of the Velocity Autocorrelation Function |url=https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevA.1.18 |journal=Physical Review A |language=en |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=18–21 |doi=10.1103/PhysRevA.1.18 |bibcode=1970PhRvA...1...18A |issn=0556-2791}}
Alder, along with Teller, was one of the founders of the Department of Applied Science in 1963.{{cite news|url=http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/InfoWeb?p_action=doc&p_topdoc=1&p_docnum=1&p_sort=YMD_date:D&p_product=AWNB&p_text_direct-0=document_id=%28%2012AE42292B98A118%20%29&p_docid=12AE42292B98A118&p_theme=aggdocs&p_queryname=12AE42292B98A118&f_openurl=yes&p_nbid=B4FR45HDMTM1NzkxNzIwNi45OTgyMTk6MToxMzoxOTIuMTYwLjIxNi4w&&p_multi=DVEB|title=UCD professor emeritus to receive National Medal of Science at White House next month|date=September 22, 2009|publisher=Davis Enterprise|access-date=January 13, 2013}} He was a professor of applied science at the University of California at Davis, and later professor emeritus.
Alder died on September 7, 2020, of heart failure.
Honors
In 2001, he was awarded the Boltzmann Medal for inventing technique of molecular dynamics simulation. Alder was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2008.{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780-2010: Chapter A|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterA.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=14 April 2011}} In 2009, he was awarded the National Medal of Science.{{Cite web |url=http://newsline.llnl.gov/_rev02/articles/2009/sep/09.18.09-alder.php |title=Berni Alder receives National Medal of Science |publisher=Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory |date=2009-09-18 |access-date=2010-02-12 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100527214921/https://newsline.llnl.gov/_rev02/articles/2009/sep/09.18.09-alder.php |archive-date=2010-05-27}} Alder was a Guggenheim Fellow. He was the editor of the book series Methods in Computational Physics and the founder of the magazine Computing.
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.computer-history.info/Page1.dir/pages/Alder.html An Interview with Bernie Alder by George Michael, Stories of the Development of Large Scale Scientific Computing at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20160413061042/http://www.cecam.org/bja_prize.html Berni J. Alder CECAM Prize]
- [https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/30662 Oral History interview transcript for Berni Alder on 18 June 1990, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library and Archives]
{{Winners of the National Medal of Science|physical}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alder, Berni}}
Category:21st-century American physicists
Category:American people of German-Jewish descent
Category:California Institute of Technology alumni
Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Category:Fellows of the American Physical Society
Category:Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States
Category:Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory staff
Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
Category:National Medal of Science laureates
Category:Scientific computing researchers
Category:UC Berkeley College of Chemistry alumni
Category:University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty
Category:University of California, Davis faculty