Bakhuis Roozeboom Medal

Physicist Shlomo Havlin, world renowned as an expert on phase transitions and statistical physics, has won the 2023 Bakhuis Roozeboom Medal. He receives the medal for his ground-breaking theoretical contributions to a range of topics related to phases and phase transitions; a field dedicated to how matter can behave in different states.

Havlin addresses a broad spectrum of issues within the field. He and his team demonstrated, for example, that complex networks, such as epidemics or traffic networks, often follow mathematical patterns that repeat on different scales. He also developed the first approach to a theory that describes the behaviour of liquids, gases or electricity in materials with an unpredictable structure through the formation of connections, i.e. the 'percolation theory'.

Havlin's research makes clear how complex networks mutually influence each other. A concept often referred to as 'networks of networks'. It highlights, for example, how failures in one network can lead to a chain reaction of failures in other interconnected systems. This knowledge has significant implications for various aspects of our daily lives, such as the impact of a power failure on our internet and other communication systems.

Chemical physicist George Jackson of Imperial College London has been awarded the Bakhuis Roozeboom Medal 2019 by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is receiving the medal for his models of the thermodynamic behaviour of complex fluids, which are used in the carbon capture, oil and gas exploration,  pharmaceutical and other industries.

George Jackson, Professor of Chemical Physics at Imperial College London, is a world leader in the development and use of molecular methods to simulate the thermodynamic properties of complex fluids. His work is both theoretical and application-driven.

Jackson is one of the spiritual fathers of the statistical associating fluid theory (SAFT), a group of equations of state that very precisely predicts the thermodynamic properties of complex fluid mixtures. His research has put him at the forefront of a new discipline, Molecular Systems Engineering, which engineers new processes and products at the molecular level.

Realistic models

 Jackson's modelling is based on simplified but realistic models of the molecular interactions that take place in a fluid. His models predict the thermodyanmics, structure, and transport of mixtures, and the conditions under which equilibria will occur between the fluid phases of the individual components. His work has led to a better understanding of the behaviour of all kinds of mixtures, ranging from liquid crystals, polymers and membranes to biological systems.

Companies such as Shell, BP, Pfizer, P&G and the Borealis Group use his models in a wide range of industrial applications, ranging from gas extraction, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals to carbon capture and storage.

Jackson has been a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry since 1995 and the Mexican Academy of Molecular Engineering since 2001. In 2014 he was awarded the Guggenheim Medal for Excellence in Thermodynamics from the Institution of Chemical Engineers, and will be receiving the 2020 Rossini Award from International Association of Chemical Thermodynamics. His research group received the Research Excellence Award in 2009 and the Imperial College London President's Award for Outstanding Research Team in 2016.

Curriculum vitae

George Jackson (1962) has been professor of Chemical Physics at Imperial College London (UK) since 2001. After receiving his PhD at the University of Oxford, he worked at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York (USA) and the University of Sheffield (UK).

Daan Frenkel will receive the 2015 Bakhuis Roozeboom Medal for the outstanding contribution that his creative computer simulations have made to the development of phase theory, the science that studies the behaviour of matter under changing circumstances.

What the jury has to say about Daan Frenkel

‘Daan Frenkel’s achievements are impressive because his creative computer simulations have opened up and mapped out new territory in phase theory. His research underpins a large number of theoretical and experimental studies on the behaviour of suspensions, fluids containing insoluble spherical, rod-shaped, and discoidal particles.’ The jury consisted of Academy members Henk Lekkerkerker (chair), Bernard Nienhuis, and Jakob de Swaan Arons, and The Young Academy’s Maaike Kroon.

About Daan Frenkel

Daan Frenkel (born in 1948) has been Professor of Theoretical Chemistry at Trinity College, Cambridge, since 2007. He is also the Head of the Department of Chemistry there. Until 2013, he was Professor of Macromolecular Simulations at the University of Amsterdam and associated with the Computational Physics research group at FOM Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics in Amsterdam. He was also Professor of Computational Physical Chemistry at Utrecht University. Daan Frenkel is a member of the Royal Academy. In 2000, he received the Spinoza Prize.

2008

R.C. Newton, United States

Henk Lekkerkerker received the Bakhuis Roozeboom Medal 2000 for phase equilibria.

The medal honours his research into colloids in general and colloidal liquid crystals in particular. Colloids are rod-like, plate-like or spherical particles suspended in liquid and measuring between a millionth and a thousandth of a millimetre in size. The particles are highly suitable experimental subjects and Professor Lekkerkerker has taken advantage of their potential and conducted his research with great creativity, according to the Academy's jury.

1999

J.W. Cahn, United States

1994

B. Widom, United States

1978

M. Hillert, Sweden

1969

F.P. Bundy, United States

1960

J.L. Meijering, the Netherlands

1954

N.L. Bowen, United States

1950

W. Hume-Rothery, United Kingdom

1939

A.L. Day, United States

1933

P.W. Bridgman, United Kingdom

1929

J.J. van Laar, France

1923

G. Tamman, Germany

1916

F.A.H. Schreinemakers, the Netherlands