Daan Frenkel One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where: (born 1948,

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

) is a Dutch computational physicist in the Department of Chemistry at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

Education

Frenkel completed his PhD at the University of Amsterdam in 1977 in experimental physical chemistry.

Career and research

Frenkel worked as

postdoctoral research A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). The ultimate goal of a postdoctoral research position is to pu ...

fellow in the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California S ...

(UCLA), subsequently at

Shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses ** Thin-shell structure Science Biology * Seashell, a hard o ...

and at the

University of Utrecht Utrecht University (UU; nl, Universiteit Utrecht, formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2018, it had an enrollme ...

. Between 1987 and 2007, Frenkel carried out his research at the FOM Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics (AMOLF) in Amsterdam where he has been employed since 1987. In the same period, he was appointed (part-time) professor at the Universities of Utrecht and Amsterdam. From 2011 to 2015 he was Head of the Department of Chemistry at the

. Since 2007 he is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge. Frenkel has co-authored together with Berend Smit ''Understanding Molecular Simulation'', which has grown into a handbook used worldwide by aspiring computational physicists.

Awards and honours

In 2000 he was one of three winners of the Dutch

Spinoza Prize The Spinoza Prize ( nl, Spinozapremie) is an annual award of 2.5 million euro, to be spent on new research given by the Dutch Research Council (NWO). The award is the highest scientific award in the Netherlands. It is named after the philosopher ...

. In 2008 he was appointed a

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...

. He is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (1998), the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

(2008), and

The World Academy of Sciences The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) is a merit-based science academy established for developing countries, uniting 1,000 scientists in some 70 countries. Its principal aim is to promote scientific capacity and excellence for sustainable deve ...

(TWAS) in 2012. He was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 2006. In 2016 he was elected as a foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences. In 2007 he received the Aneesur Rahman Prize from the American Physical Society (APS) and the Berni J Alder CECAM prize. In 2010 he received the Soft Matter and Biophysical Chemistry Award from the

Royal Society of Chemistry The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is a learned society (professional association) in the United Kingdom with the goal of "advancing the chemical sciences". It was formed in 1980 from the amalgamation of the Chemical Society, the Royal Instit ...

(RSC), UK. He received the 2016

Boltzmann Medal The Boltzmann Medal (or Boltzmann Award) is a prize awarded to physicists that obtain new results concerning statistical mechanics; it is named after the celebrated physicist Ludwig Boltzmann. The Boltzmann Medal is awarded once every three years ...

and the 2022

Lorentz Medal Lorentz Medal is a distinction awarded every four years by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. It was established in 1925 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the doctorate of Hendrik Lorentz. The medal is given for impor ...

. Asteroid

12651 Frenkel 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

, discovered by astronomers during the third Palomar–Leiden trojan survey in 1977, was named in his honor in 2018.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Frenkel, Daan 1948 births Living people Computational physicists Dutch physical chemists 20th-century Dutch physicists Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge Foreign Members of the Royal Society Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences Members of the University of Cambridge Department of Chemistry Scientists from Amsterdam Spinoza Prize winners University of Amsterdam alumni Academic staff of Utrecht University 21st-century Dutch physicists