Car wins IEEE Fernbach Award

By Kitta MacPherson on Nov. 12, 2009, 3:40 p.m.
Roberto Car

Roberto Car Photo: Martina Car

Roberto Car, the Ralph W. Dornte *31 Professor in Chemistry at Princeton and a faculty fellow   of the Princeton Center for Theoretical Science, has been named a winner of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Computer Society 2009 Sidney Fernbach Award.

Car was recognized for his leadership in creating the modern theoretical and practical foundations for modeling the chemistry and physics of materials. Part of the citation for the award reads: "The software resulting from this work is one of the enabling tools for materials science modeling."

The award is one of the IEEE Computer Society's highest honors. It recognizes outstanding contributions in the application of high-performance computers using innovative approaches and consists of a certificate and a $1,000 honorarium.

Car will be acknowledged along with co-winner Michele Parrinello, a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences at Universita della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano, Switzerland, during a ceremony Wednesday, Nov. 18, in Portland, Ore. The pair co-developed the theory of "ab-initio molecular dynamics." The theory, written by the scientists in 1985, is widely used in theoretical computations of numerous problems in physics and chemistry.

Car came to Princeton in 1999 after working at the University of Milan, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, the International School for Advanced Studies in Trieste, Italy, and the University of Geneva.

The award was established in 1992 in memory of Sidney Fernbach, one of the pioneers in the development and application of high-performance computers for the solution of large computational problems. The IEEE Computer Society is the world's leading organization of computing professionals. It is the largest of the 38 societies of the IEEE and is dedicated to advancing the theory and application of computer and information-processing technology.


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