Peter Debye Award in Physical Chemistry: Bruce J. Berne

Sponsor: DuPont

Citation: For pioneering theoretical and computer simulation studies of liquid state and biomolecular systems, and for dramatically increasing the impact of these methods in physical chemistry.

Current position: Higgins Professor of Chemistry, Columbia University

Education: B.S., chemistry, City University of New York; Ph.D., chemical physics, University of Chicago

Berne on what he hopes to accomplish in the next decade: “I hope to play an important role in drug discovery, especially with respect to anticancer drugs. I have lost too many loved ones and friends to cancer, and in the time remaining I would be thrilled to make a significant contribution to this field. I believe that there is considerable room for methodological advances to make a major impact. It is a hotly contested area.”

What his colleagues say: “No scientist is more responsible for the successful evolution of theory with computation than Bruce Berne. He developed ground-breaking theoretical and computational methods, creatively combined, to solve numerous important problems in the field of physical chemistry.—Gregory A. Voth, University of Chicago