Ali Alavi

Ali Alavi
Ali Alavi in 2015, portrait from the Royal Society
Fields	Chemistry
Institutions	University of Cambridge Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research
Known for	Quantum Monte Carlo methods[1][2]
Notable awards	FRS (2015)[3] FRSC (2015)
Website www.fkf.mpg.de/alavi www-alavi.ch.cam.ac.uk www.ch.cam.ac.uk/person/asa10

Ali Alavi FRS^[4] is a Professor of Theoretical chemistry in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge and a Director of the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart.^{[3][5][6][7][8][9][10]}

Awards and honours

Alavi was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2015. His certificate of election reads:

“

Ali Alavi is distinguished for his highly original contributions to the computation of electron correlation effects in atoms and molecules. His idea of using Monte Carlo sampling of Slater Determinants constitutes a breakthrough as it circumvents the Fermion sign problem. He developed efficient algorithms (FCIQMC) for this, which enables the accurate treatment of larger systems than could be handled by any earlier method. He has applied the technique to outstanding quantum chemical problems. He has also contributed to the study of reaction mechanisms on surfaces and developed a finite-temperature density-functional method which proved particularly useful for metals and metallic surfaces.[3]

”

Alavi was also elected a scientific member of the Max Planck Society in 2013 and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) in 2015.^[11]

References

1. Cleland, Deidre; Booth, George H.; Alavi, Ali (2010). "Communications: Survival of the fittest: Accelerating convergence in full configuration-interaction quantum Monte Carlo". The Journal of Chemical Physics. 132 (4): 041103. doi:10.1063/1.3302277. ISSN 0021-9606. PMID 20113011.
2. Booth, George H.; Thom, Alex J. W.; Alavi, Ali (2009). "Fermion Monte Carlo without fixed nodes: A game of life, death, and annihilation in Slater determinant space" (PDF). The Journal of Chemical Physics. 131 (5): 054106. doi:10.1063/1.3193710. ISSN 0021-9606.
3. "Professor Ali Alavi FRS". London: The Royal Society. Archived from the original on 2015-05-02.
4. "Professor Ali Alavi FRS". London: Royal Society. Archived from the original on 2015-09-22.
5. Alavi, A.; Hu, P.; Deutsch, T.; Silvestrelli, P. L.; Hutter, J. R. (1998). "CO Oxidation on Pt(111): An Ab Initio Density Functional Theory Study". Physical Review Letters. 80 (16): 3650. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.80.3650.
6. Ali Alavi's publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database, a service provided by Elsevier. (subscription required)
7. Liu, Z. P.; Hu, P.; Alavi, A. (2002). "Catalytic Role of Gold in Gold-Based Catalysts: A Density Functional Theory Study on the CO Oxidation on Gold". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 124 (49): 14770. doi:10.1021/ja0205885.
8. Michaelides, A.; Liu, Z. -P.; Zhang, C. J.; Alavi, A.; King, D. A.; Hu, P. (2003). "Identification of General Linear Relationships between Activation Energies and Enthalpy Changes for Dissociation Reactions at Surfaces". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 125 (13): 3704. doi:10.1021/ja027366r.
9. Booth, G. H.; Grüneis, A; Kresse, G; Alavi, A (2013). "Towards an exact description of electronic wavefunctions in real solids". Nature. 493 (7432): 365–70. doi:10.1038/nature11770. PMID 23254929.
10. Alavi, A. (1990). "Evidence for a Kosterlitz-Thouless transition in a simulation of CD4 adsorbed on MgO". Physical Review Letters. 64 (19): 2289. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.64.2289.
11. http://www.rsc.org/images/rsc-news-june-2015_tcm18-246763.pdf Prestigious honours for members of our community