Biosketch

Daan Frenkel received his PhD in experimental Physical Chemistry from the University of Amsterdam (NL). Subsequently, he worked as a postdoctoral research associate in Chemistry at the University of California at Los Angeles. After that, he worked at Shell Research (Amsterdam), the Universities of Utrecht and Amsterdam and the FOM Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics in Amsterdam. In 2007, he was appointed to the 1968 Chair of Theoretical Chemistry at Cambridge (UK). He was Head of Department from 2011 to 2015. He retired in 2018, but remain research active.

Research Interests

Daan Frenkel's research interests focus on numerical simulations of many-body systems, with a special emphasis on problems relating to ordering and self-assembly in soft matter. In the context of this research, he has developed novel Monte Carlo algorithms for free-energy calculations and for the simulation of chain molecules. In addition, he has developed techniques to compute the number of disordered packings of jammed particles. Applications of his research are in the area of liquid-crystalline ordering, crystal nucleation and complex self-assembly.

Membership Type

International Member

Election Year

2016

Primary Section

Section 33: Applied Physical Sciences

Secondary Section

Section 14: Chemistry