Axel Dieter Becke (born June 10, 1953) is a physical chemist and Professor of Chemistry at

Dalhousie University Dalhousie University (commonly known as Dal) is a large public research university in Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the fou ...

, Canada. He is a leading researcher in the application of

density functional theory Density-functional theory (DFT) is a computational quantum mechanical modelling method used in physics, chemistry and materials science to investigate the electronic structure (or nuclear structure) (principally the ground state) of many-body ...

(DFT) to molecules.

Early life

Becke was born in Esslingen, Germany. He graduated with a B.Sc. from Queen's University. He completed his M.Sc. and Ph.D. from

McMaster University McMaster University (McMaster or Mac) is a public research university in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The main McMaster campus is on of land near the residential neighbourhoods of Ainslie Wood and Westdale, adjacent to the Royal Botanical Ga ...

Academic career

From 1981 to 1983, Becke was a NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow at Dalhousie University. He took up his first faculty position at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario in the 1980s. In 2006, he relocated to

to serve as the Killam Chair in Computational Science.

Research

Becke contributed in the development of non-LCAO, grid-based numerical methodologies for molecular orbital calculations. He was also contributed in the development and benchmarking of exchange-correlation functionals in Kohn-Sham density-functional theory. He is known for his highly cited work on the density-functional theory of atomic and molecular structure.

Density functional theory Density-functional theory (DFT) is a computational quantum mechanical modelling method used in physics, chemistry and materials science to investigate the electronic structure (or nuclear structure) (principally the ground state) of many-body ...

(DFT) was originally designed to describe metallic solid state systems. Becke, along with his co-researcher John Perdew, demonstrated that DFT could be an effective tool in quantum chemistry as well, where it is used to describe the structure and energetics of molecules. He developed a valuable computational technique (NUMOL) which allowed a new level of precision. His work has led to advancement in many areas of chemistry and physics, where his methods are used to calculate the molecular properties of large and complex molecular systems with greater accuracy. He was a developer of the theory of the

electron localization function In quantum chemistry, the electron localization function (ELF) is a measure of the likelihood of finding an electron in the neighborhood space of a reference electron located at a given point and with the same spin. Physically, this measures the ...

(ELF).

Honours and awards

In 2000 he was awarded the

Schrödinger Medal The Schrödinger Medal is an annual award presented by the World Association of Theoretical and Computational Chemists The World Association of Theoretical and Computational Chemists (WATOC) is a scholarly association founded in 1982 "in order to e ...

from the World Association of Theoretically Oriented Chemists. In 2006 he was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

of London. In 2015, Becke was awarded the

Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering The Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering is awarded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada to recognize "research contributions characterized by both excellence and influence." Prior ...

. Part of the funds from this award were used to establish was the Herzberg–Becke Chair in Theoretical Chemistry at

, which is currently held by

Erin Johnson Erin Johnson is a Canadian computational chemist. She holds the Herzberg–Becke Chair at Dalhousie University. She works on density functional theory and intermolecular interactions. Education and early career Johnson is from Ottawa, Canada ...

, one of his former Ph.D. students. He has also received several other notable awards: * Canada Council Killam Prize in the Natural Sciences (2016) *

Chemical Institute of Canada A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by physical separation methods, i.e., wit ...

Medal (2015) * Theoretical Chemistry Award of the American Chemical Society (2014) * Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (elected 2000) * Fellow of the Royal Society of London (elected 2006) * Killam Research Fellow, Canada Council for the Arts (2005–2007) * Medal of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science (1991)

References

* *

External links

Personal webpage at Dalhousie University
{{DEFAULTSORT:Becke, Axel D. 1953 births Living people Dalhousie University alumni Academic staff of the Dalhousie University Theoretical chemists Fellows of the Royal Society Schrödinger Medal recipients Computational chemists