Athens, Ga. – Kurt Binder, a professor of physics at the University of Mainz in Germany and an adjunct professor in the University of Georgia’s Center for Simulational Physics, has been named co-winner of a top award in the field.
Binder, who has been associated with the program at UGA for more than 30 years, will receive the 2007 Boltzmann Medal in July during the annual meeting of the International Conference on Statistical Physics in Genoa, Italy.
Binder is an international expert on the statistical mechanics of magnetic systems, alloys, glasses and polymers. He will share the award with Professor Giovanni Gallavotti of the University of Rome “La Sapienza.” Gallavotti is an expert on the mathematical foundations of fluid dynamics. Binder is also winner of the Max Planck Medal, the CECAM Berni J. Alder prize and the Staudinger-Durrer Prize.
“Kurt Binder is an exceptionally talented and prolific researcher who has had a tremendous impact on the development of our understanding of wide ranging physical phenomena,” said David Landau, director of the Center for Simulational Physics. “The University of Georgia is very fortunate to have had a longstanding association with him.”
The Award was instituted by the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics and was first awarded in 1975. It is only given every three years. The award consists of a gilded medal and cannot be awarded twice or given to a Nobel recipient in physics.
The Center for Simulational Physics at UGA is dedicated to the use and development of simulational techniques to solve problems in physics and related disciplines that are intractable to current analytical theory and to gain insight into physical phenomena where the accuracy and scope of experimental results is limited.
