Ali Alavi

Education

Alavi was educated at the University of Cambridge where he was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in Natural Sciences[11] followed by a PhD in 1990[12] for research on the molecular dynamics of thin films and charge-transfer complexes.

Research and career

His research is focused on the electron correlation and the Schrödinger equations, combining quantum chemistry with Monte Carlo methods, which enable solutions to problems which are very difficult to solve using standard Ab initio quantum chemistry methods alone.[11] His research has been funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).[11] Before working in Cambridge and Stuttgart, he held an academic post at Queen's University Belfast.[11]

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.[13]

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. 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. PMID 19673550.
  3. Anon (2015). "Professor Ali Alavi FRS". London: royalsociety.org. Archived from the original on 2 May 2015.
  4. Anon (2015). "Professor Ali Alavi FRS". London: Royal Society. Archived from the original on 22 September 2015.
  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. Bibcode:1998PhRvL..80.3650A. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.80.3650.
  6. Ali Alavi's publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database. (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): 3704–5. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.474.783. doi:10.1021/ja027366r. PMID 12656593.
  9. Booth, G. H.; Grüneis, A; Kresse, G; Alavi, Ali (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): 2289–2292. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.64.2289. PMID 10041636.
  11. Anon (2017). "Professor Ali Alavi FRS". epsrc.ac.uk. Swindon: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. Archived from the original on 18 January 2017.
  12. Alavi, Ali (1990). Molecular-dynamics studies of thin films and charge-transfer (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge. OCLC 557291171.
  13. Anon (2015). "Prestigious honours for members of our community" (PDF). rsc.org.


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