Alex Zunger, Professor, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, is a Principal Investigator in the National Renewable Energy Laboratory-led "Center for Inverse Design," which is a collaboration of experimentalists and theorists who are designing and creating materials with given target properties. Dr. Zunger is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2011 Materials Theory Award of the Materials Research Society, 2010 Tomassoni Prize and Science Medal of Scola Physica Romana, 2009 Johannes Guttenberg Award, 2001 John Bardeen Award of The Materials Society (TMS), and 2001 Rahman Prize of the American Physical Society (APS). He has authored more than 150 papers in Physical Review Letters and Rapid Communication, has an “h-number” of 92, and authored the fifth-highest-impact paper ever to be published in Physical Review since 1893.

Biography

Dr. Zunger’s research field is condensed matter theory of real materials. He developed the first-principles pseudopotentials for the Density-Functional Theory (1977), co-developed the momentum-space total-energy method (1978), co-developed what is now the most widely used exchange and correlation energy functional and the self-interaction correction (1981), and developed a novel theoretical method for simultaneous relaxation of atomic positions and charge densities in self-consistent local-density-approximation calculations (1983). Recently, he developed novel methods for calculating the electronic properties of semiconductor quantum nanostructures. These atomistic methods have enabled Dr. Zunger and his team to discover a range of many-body effects underlying the fundamental physics of the creation, multiplication, and annihilation of excitons.

Zunger 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).

His works have established the fundamental understanding of a wide range of materials phenomena in photovoltaic utilization of solar energy materials. The foundational methods he developed in the Quantum Theory of Solids now form an essential integral part of the worldwide activities in the broad field of “First-Principles Theory of Real Solids.”

In recent years, Dr. Zunger has focused on developing the “Inverse Band Structure” concept, whereby one uses ideas from quantum mechanics as well as genetic algorithms to search for atomic configurations that have a desired target property. With the inverse design concept, Dr. Zunger is likely to fundamentally change the approach to materials research and thereby usher in a new era of material science.

Dr. Zunger established (in 1978) NREL’s Solid-State Theory group, which he headed until 2011. He has been an NREL Research Fellow, is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, and was the first Director of the DOE BES “Center for Inverse Design.” He has also trained more than 70 post-doctoral fellows. He is the recipient of the 2011 Materials Theory Award of the Materials Research Society, 2010 Tomassoni Prize and Science Medal of Scola Physica Romana, 2009 Johannes Guttenberg Award, 2001 John Bardeen Prize of The Materials Society, and 2001 Rahman Prize of the American Physical Society. On May 23, 2011, he resigned from all his posts at NREL http://www.sst.nrel.gov/groupleader/DepartureAlexZunger.jpg.

Publications

The impact of Dr. Zunger’s work is partially reflected by the very high number of citations his papers have received (over 40,000, according to the ISI Web of Science) and by his high “h-number” of 92 (i.e., 92 of his papers were cited each at least 92 times). He is the author of the fifth-most-cited paper in the 110-year history of Physical Review (out of over 350,000 articles published in that journal). The chart shows the number of referred articles published by Zunger for each of the last 20 years.

In the course of his extensive innovative research, he has authored more than 580 articles in refereed journals, which includes over 120 articles in Physical Review Letters and Rapid Communications and three citation classics. See a list of Zunger's 100 most-cited articles.

2011 Materials Theory Award of the Materials Research Society

Alex Zunger won the inaugural "Materials Theory Award" (MTA) of the Materials Research Society for 2011. MRS established this award to "recognize exceptional advances made by materials theory to the fundamental understanding of the structure and behavior of materials. This Award is intended to honor both those who have pioneered the development of a new theoretical approach and those who have used existing approaches to provide significant new insight into materials behavior."

The full citation to Dr. Zunger’s award reads as follows:

“For his development of the Inverse Band Structure approach to materials by design and the foundational developments of methods of First-Principles theory of solids leading to innovative transformative studies of renewable-energy materials and nanostructures.”

This work involved Zunger’s pre-Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) work on "Inverse Band Structure" (1999‒2009), as well as fundamental work on basic physics of semiconductor materials, and the more recent transformation of this research into the "EFRC on Inverse Design," which is combining this theory with a strong experimental effort.

2010 Tomassoni Physics Prize and the Science Medal of Scola Physica Romana

Alex Zunger received two prestigious physics prizes—the Tomassoni Physics Prize and the Science Medal of Scola Physica Romana—in a ceremony on June 14, 2010, 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, which accompanies the Tomassoni Prize, honors the tradition of physics research established at the university in the 1920s by Nobel Laureate Enrico Fermi. Previous recipients of the Tomassoni Prize include Lisa Randall (2003; Harvard); Federico Capasso (2004; Harvard), Piero Zucchelli (2005); Savas Dimopoulos (2006; Stanford); Gerald Gabrielse (2008), and Gabriele Veneziano (2009; College de France).

The full citation to Dr. Zunger’s award reads as follows:

“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 one 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."

2009 Johannes Guttenberg Prize of the University of Mainz, Germany

Dr. Zunger received the Gutenberg Lecture Award at a ceremony on November 12, 2009, at the University of Mainz. The award was established to recognize outstanding international leaders in the field of polymer research or correlated materials.

The full citation to Dr. Zunger’s Guttenberg Prize reads as follows:

“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 Theory Group. Concomitantly, Dr. Zunger became 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, and three 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. 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 5th 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 developed the 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 1997 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.”

2001 John Bardeen Award of The Materials Society

Dr. Zunger was the 2001 recipient of the John Bardeen Award, established in 1994 by The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society, to recognize an individual who has made outstanding contributions and is a leader in the field of electronic materials. Previous recipients of this award are Morton B. Parish (1994), Nick Holonyak, Jr. (1995), LeGrand G. Van Uitert (1996), John B. Goodenough (1997), Subhash Mahaian (1998), Lionel Kimerling (1999), and Y. Austin Chang (2000).

The citation to Dr. Zunger’s Bardeen Award reads as follows:

"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."

In receiving this award, Zunger gave the following acknowledgement: “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.”

2001 Rahman Prize of the American Physical Society

Dr. Zunger received the Rahman Prize of the American Physical Society at the annual APS meeting in Boston, MA, on June 25, 2001. The prize was established in 1992 with support from IBM to recognize and encourage outstanding achievement in computational physics research. 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).

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 centers on a different aspect of Zunger's work than the Bardeen Award, focusing on his development of first-principles methodologies for predicting properties of solids. These methodologies include:

1. The early development of first-principles local density approximation (LDA) atomic pseudopotentials [Topiol, Zunger, Ratner, Chem. Phys. Lett. 49, 367 (1977) and Zunger and Cohen, Phys. Rev. B 18 5449 (1978)];
2. The pseudopotential total energy and force methods [Ihm, Zunger, and Cohen, J. Phys. C 12, 4409 (1979);
3. 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)];
4. Accurate exchange-correlation functional;
5. The self-interaction correction (Perdew and Zunger, Phys. Rev. B 23, 5048 (1981)]; and
6. Mixed-basis cluster expansion for prediction of ground-state crystal structures and the temperature-composition phase-diagram of alloys.

Other areas of interest of Dr. Zunger include photovoltaic materials, spontaneous ordering in solids (the subject of Zunger’s 2001 Bardeen Award), and quantum nanostructures. Zunger's research at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science, Basic Energy Science, Division of Materials Science, and by DOE's Photovoltaic Energy Technologies Program.

Sources

• http://www.aps.org/programs/honors/prizes/prizerecipient.cfm?name=Alex%20Zunger&year=2001
• http://www.phys.uniroma1.it/DipWeb/tommasoni/prizes.html
• http://www.mainz.uni-mainz.de/423.php
• http://www.sst.nrel.gov/media_cov/rahman.html
• http://www.tms.org/society/Honors/2001/Bardeen2001.html