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 (DFT) to molecules.

Early life

Becke was born in Esslingen, Germany. He graduated with a B.Sc. from

Queen's University Queen's or Queens University may refer to: *Queen's University at Kingston, Ontario, Canada *Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK **Queen's University of Belfast (UK Parliament constituency) (1918–1950) **Queen's University of Belfast ...

. He completed his M.Sc. and Ph.D. from McMaster University.

Academic career

From 1981 to 1983, Becke was a NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow at Dalhousie University. He took up his first faculty position at

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 (DFT) was originally designed to describe metallic solid state systems. Becke, along with his co-researcher

John Perdew John P. Perdew (born August 30, 1943) is a theoretical condensed matter physicist known for his contributions to the fields of solid-state physics and quantum chemistry. His work on density functional theory has led to him being one of the world's ...

, 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 (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 The World Association of Theoretical and Computational Chemists (WATOC) is a scholarly association founded in 1982 "in order to encourage the development and application of theoretical methods" in chemistry, particularly theoretical chemistry and c ...

. In 2006 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London. In 2015, Becke was awarded the Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering. 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 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