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| John P. Perdew | |
|---|---|
| Name | John P. Perdew |
| Birth date | 1942 |
| Birth place | United States |
| Fields | Physics, Chemistry |
| Workplaces | Temple University, Tulane University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Rutgers University, Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest |
| Alma mater | Princeton University, Ohio State University |
| Doctoral advisor | John C. Slater |
| Known for | Perdew–Burke–Ernzerhof functional, density functional theory, exchange-correlation approximations |
| Awards | American Physical Society Fellowship, NAS Award in Chemical Sciences |
John P. Perdew is an American theoretical physicist and chemist renowned for foundational work in electronic structure theory and approximations to the exchange-correlation energy in density functional theory. He has developed widely used density functionals and contributed to computational methods applied across condensed matter physics, quantum chemistry, and materials science. Perdew's work has influenced research at institutions such as Bell Labs, IBM, Sandia National Laboratories, and numerous universities worldwide.
Perdew was born in the United States and pursued undergraduate studies during a period when postwar American science expanded at institutions like Princeton University and Ohio State University, where many of his contemporaries trained. He earned degrees in physics and chemistry, studying under prominent figures associated with research cultures at Johns Hopkins University and Harvard University through visiting collaborations. His doctoral training connected him to mentors involved with the evolution of quantum many-body methods and to research networks that included participants from Bell Labs and Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Perdew's academic career spans appointments and collaborations across North American research centers and universities. He has held faculty positions at institutions such as Temple University, Tulane University, and Rutgers University, and has collaborated with researchers at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and national laboratories including Argonne National Laboratory and Brookhaven National Laboratory. Perdew served on editorial boards for journals associated with American Physical Society and Royal Society of Chemistry publication programs, and he has lectured at conferences organized by societies including the Materials Research Society, Gordon Research Conferences, and International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry. His professional activities included advisory roles for agencies such as the National Science Foundation and participation in multinational collaborations with scientists affiliated with Max Planck Society, École Normale Supérieure, and University of Cambridge.
Perdew’s research centers on approximations to the exchange-correlation functional within density functional theory, advancing both conceptual foundations and practical functionals. He co-developed generalized gradient approximations that improved on the Local Density Approximation, contributing to what became known as the Perdew–Burke–Ernzerhof family, which has been implemented in electronic structure codes maintained by teams at Quantum ESPRESSO, VASP, ABINIT, Gaussian, and NWChem. His work established exact constraints and scaling relations connected to principles articulated by figures associated with Walter Kohn and Lu Jeu Sham, integrating ideas from sum rules studied by researchers at Brookhaven National Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Perdew formulated nonempirical construction strategies for exchange-correlation approximations that emphasize satisfaction of exact conditions rather than parameter fitting, a philosophy that influenced later hybrid and meta-GGA functionals developed in collaborations spanning Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and University of California, Berkeley. He contributed to formal analyses of exchange holes and correlation energies similar to conceptual tools used by members of Bell Labs and the Royal Society. These contributions underpin predictive modeling of materials with relevance to investigations at Argonne National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, and industrial research groups at DuPont and Shell.
Perdew’s work has been recognized by professional societies and national academies. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and has received awards from chemical and physical societies including distinctions analogous to honors granted by the National Academy of Sciences and the American Chemical Society. His recognition includes prizes for theoretical chemistry and materials modeling akin to awards given by the Royal Society of Chemistry and presentation invitations to named lectures sponsored by organizations such as the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics and the Materials Research Society.
Perdew authored and coauthored influential papers and reviews that appear in flagship journals associated with the American Physical Society, Nature Publishing Group, and Elsevier. Key publications describe generalized gradient approximations, exact constraint-based functionals, and assessments of functional performance on benchmark data sets curated by collaborations including groups at University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, and California Institute of Technology. His highly cited work has been incorporated into educational resources and software documentation produced by teams at Quantum ESPRESSO, VASP, NWChem, GPAW, and CP2K, affecting computational studies in fields connected to laboratories such as Los Alamos National Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Perdew’s legacy includes mentorship of researchers who hold positions at universities such as Princeton University, Yale University, Columbia University, and University of Chicago, and his methodologies continue to guide investigations in areas pursued at institutions like MIT Lincoln Laboratory and industry research centers at IBM Research. His functionals remain standard tools for studying electronic, structural, and magnetic properties across an array of materials topics prioritized by funding agencies including the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation.
Category:American physicists Category:Computational chemists