SIF Fermi Prize to Car and Parrinello
The 2012 Enrico Fermi Prize of the Italian Physical Society [SIF] has been awarded in the field of condensed matter physics to Roberto Car, of Princeton University, and Michele Parrinello, of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, for “the discovery of a Molecular Dynamics method known the world over as the Car-Parrinello method. This method has been a breakthrough in the field of numerical simulations, with great impact in many interdisciplinary contexts both theoretical and experimental, ranging from Material Science to Chemistry and Biology”.
The prize was established in 2001, to commemorate the great scientist on the occasion of the centenary of his birth. The prize is awarded annually to members of the society who particularly honour physics with their discoveries. The award ceremony is part of the opening session of the annual SIF National Congress.
Roberto Car and Michele Parrinello started work together in the early 1980s at the International School of Advanced Studies [SISSA], in Trieste. In a stroke of genius they created, in 1985, “first-principle molecular dynamics”, better known as Car-Parrinello method, in an article in Physical Review Letters titled “Unified Approach for Molecular Dynamics and Density-Functional Theory”.
The authors had recognized that the unification of two existing computational methods – called Density Functional Theory and Molecular Dynamics – could allow a fantastic innovation in the field of numerical simulations for the description and prediction of the behaviour of individual atoms in solid, liquids and molecules under different external conditions.
Car and Parrinello’s idea was to evolve the electronic wave function with a fictitious dynamics: where the ions are moving according to classical molecular dynamics, but the forces on them are evaluated by quantum mechanics without adopting any empirical model potential. For this their method is addressed as “ab-initio”.
Since its introduction, the Car-Parrinello Molecular Dynamics method has been adopted in a wealth of interdisciplinary contexts, ranging from materials science to chemistry and biology. It represents a beautiful joint effort – of theoretical and computational physics – to understand both the properties of matter and evolution of processes.
In the years since, having left Trieste, Car and Parrinello have followed different carrier paths in the most prestigious world institutions, continuing in high-profile research activities; teaching and inspiring the younger generations.
Car and Parrinello had already received the 1990 European Physical Society Condensed Matter Division Europhysics Prize for these outstanding achievements.
