University of Texas at Austin professor Jim Chelikowsky has won an award for career-long work using computational methods to study the properties of materials used in electronic devices such as semiconductors.
The American Physical Society will present Chelikowsky with the David Adler Lectureship Award in March 2006. The award is for his “creative and outstanding research in computational materials physics and for his effectiveness in communicating research results through lectures and publications.”
Chelikowsky holds the W.A. "Tex" Moncrief, Jr. Chair in Computational Materials, a chair within the university’s Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences (ICES). He directs the ICES Center for Computational Materials, and is a professor of chemical engineering, physics and chemistry at the university. Chelikowsky uses computers to research the properties of semiconductor materials. These theoretical calculations can sometimes predict the properties and behavior of materials better than actual experimentation, he said. In a current project, Chelikowsky is studying the optical properties and electron transporting ability of semiconductor nanostructures.
Mei-Yin Chou, a professor at Georgia Institute of Technology who worked as a postdoctoral fellow in Chelikowsky’s lab about 20 years ago, nominated him for the Adler award. “In the many areas he has worked on, he has made seminal contributions and is a leader in the true sense of the word—constantly on the cutting edge, leading others to follow his path,” Chou said in her nomination letter.
Six thousand citations testify to the importance of his academic publications. Among the most important are Chelikowsky’s co-authorship, with his Ph.D. supervising professor and current colleague Marvin Cohen, of a 1976 paper on semiconductor materials, and a book, Electronic Structure and Optical Properties of Semiconductors. They are both considered “classic” or “standard” in the field, Chou said. In addition, Chelikowsky’s research over the years has provided ideas and foundations for important breakthroughs in materials physics, she said.
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