Berni Alder

Bernie J. Alder ( b. 1925 in Germany ) is an American physicist who deals with statistical mechanics and is a pioneer of digital simulation in physics.

Life and work

Alder was born as a Swiss citizen in Germany, moved to the seizure of power by the Nazis with his family in Switzerland and the U.S. in 1941, where he studied at the University of Berkeley, interrupted by a time in the U.S. Navy during World War II, Chemistry ( Bachelor 1946, Master 1947).

In 1948 he went to Caltech to John G. Kirkwood, where he independently found the Monte Carlo method for the study of phase transitions in hard -sphere gas models ( rigid spheres ) with Stan Frankel ( 1919-1978 ).

After receiving his doctorate in 1952, he went to the University of Berkeley and worked simultaneously at the suggestion of Edward Teller as a consultant in the nuclear weapons program of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory ( design equations of state ). In collaboration with Thomas Wainwright (1927-2007) he developed the mid-1950s, the molecular dynamics ( Molecular Dynamics) simulation method. This allowed them to, among others, the transition from liquid to solid state in the Hard -Sphere - gas model show or the decay of velocity autocorrelation functions in liquids.

Later Alder was Professor of Applied Science at the University of California at Davis, now a professor emeritus.

In 2001 he received the Boltzmann Medal for the invention of the molecular dynamics simulation method

In 2009 he received the National Medal of Science.

Alder was Guggenheim Fellow. He was editor of the book series Methods in Computational Physics and founder of the magazine Computing.