Peter Schwerdtfeger

Schwerdtfeger took his first degree in Chemical Engineering at Aalen University in 1976, after finishing a degree as chemical-technical assistant at the Institute Dr. Flad in Stuttgart in 1973. He studied chemistry, physics and mathematics at Stuttgart University where he received his PhD in theoretical chemistry in 1986. He received a Feodor-Lynen fellowship of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation to join the chemistry department and later the School of Engineering at University of Auckland in 1987. After a two years research fellowship at the Research School of Chemistry (Australian National University), he returned to Auckland University in 1991 for a lectureship in chemistry. He received his habilitation and venia legendi (Privatdozent) in 1995 from the Philipps University of Marburg. He held a personal chair in physical chemistry for five years until moving to Massey University Albany in 2004, where he established the Centre for Theoretical Chemistry and Physics. He became a founding member of the New Zealand Institute for Advanced Study in 2007. In 2007 he received the Royal Society Australasian Chemistry Lectureship, and was the Källen Lecturer in Physics at Lund University (Sweden) in 2015. From 2017-2018 he was member of the Centre for Advanced Study at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. He published 350 papers in international journals and books covering many different areas in fundamental science, and served on many international societies and editorial boards. He was awarded many international and national grants including eight consecutive Marsden awards by the Royal Society of New Zealand, and is one of the most cited chemists and physicists in the country.

• 2001 James Cook Fellowship [1]
• 2011 Fukui Medal [2]
• 2012 Fellow of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science.[2]
• 2014 Royal Society of New Zealand's Rutherford Medal, New Zealand's highest science honour.[3][4]

Schwerdtfeger's research interests are in fundamental chemistry, physics, and mathematics. Current research interests involve lattice sums in N dimensions, polyhedral graphs and topology of fullerenes, physics beyond the standard model, relativistic, quantum electrodynamic and electroweak interactions in atoms and molecules, development pseudopotentials for molecules and the solid state, confined quantum systems, equation of state of gases, liquids and solids, simulation of phase transitions including melting and vapourization, the chemistry and physics of heavy and superheavy elements, first principles ab-initio and density functional studies of the solid state, chemistry at extreme conditions, materials under high pressure, structure and properties of coordination and organometallic compounds, nuclear multipole moments and field gradients, weak interactions (Van der Waals type) between atoms and molecules containing heavy elements, gas separation and storage for hydrogen, carbon dioxide and methane, and simulation of metal clusters and nano-materials.

• Schwerdtfeger, P.; Heath, G.A.; Dolg, M.; Bennett, M.A. (1992). "Low Valencies and Periodic Trends in Heavy Element Chemistry. A Theoretical Study of Relativistic and Correlation Effects in Group 13 and Period 6 Hydrides and Fluorides". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 114: 7518. doi:10.1021/ja00045a027.
• Schwerdtfeger, P. (2003). "Gold Goes Nano – From Small Clusters to Low-Dimensional Assemblies". Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 42: 1936. doi:10.1002/anie.200201610.
• Hermann, A.; Schmidt, W.G.; Schwerdtfeger, P. (2008). "Resolving the optical spectrum of water: Coordination and electrostatic effects". Physical Review Letters. 100: 207403. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.207403.
• Schwerdtfeger, P. (2011). "The Pseudopotential Approximation in Electronic Structure Theory". ChemPhysChem. 2: 3143. doi:10.1002/cphc.201100387.
• Hauser, A.; Schwerdtfeger, P. (2012). "Nanoporous graphene membranes for efficient 3He/4He separation". Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters. 3: 209. doi:10.1021/jz201504k.
• Calvo, F.; Pahl, E.; Wormit, M.; Schwerdtfeger, P. (2013). "Evidence for low temperature melting of mercury owing to relativity". Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 52: 7583. doi:10.1002/anie.201302742.
• Schwerdtfeger, P.; Wirz, L.; Avery, J. (2015). "The Topology of Fullerenes". Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Computational Molecular Science. 5: 96. doi:10.1002/wcms.1207.
• Pašteka, L.F.; Eliav, E.; Borschevsky, A.; Kaldor, U.; Schwerdtfeger, P. (2017). "Relativistic coupled cluster calculations with variational quantum electrodynamics resolve the discrepancy between experiment and theory concerning the electron affinity and ionization potential of gold". Physical Review Letters. 118: 023002. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.118.023002.
• Jerabek, P.; Schuetrumpf, B.; Schwerdtfeger, P.; Nazarewicz, W. (2018). "Electron and Nucleon Localization Functions in Superheavy Elements". Physical Review Letters. 120: 053001. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.053001.
• Giuliani, S. A.; Matheson, Z.; Nazarewicz, W.; Olsen, E.; Reinhard, P.-G.; Sadhukhan, J.; Schuetrumpf, B.; Schunck, N.; Schwerdtfeger, P. (2019). "Oganesson and beyond". Review of Modern Physics. 91: 011001. doi:10.1103/RevModPhys.91.011001.

• http://ctcp.massey.ac.nz/~schwerd