CCQ Director Antoine Georges Awarded Rahman Prize for Computational Physics

The American Physical Society has awarded its 2020 Aneesur Rahman Prize for Computational Physics to Antoine Georges. He shares the prize with Gabriel Kotliar of Rutgers University.

Georges directs the Flatiron Institute’s Center for Computational Quantum Physics (CCQ) and is a professor of physics at the Collège de France in Paris. Kotliar is also a consultant at CCQ.

The prize recognizes Georges and Kotliar for the development of dynamical mean field theory “as a tool for the computation of properties of strongly correlated materials.” Dynamical mean field theory, or DMFT, has transformed the field since its inception in the 1990s by enabling scientists to explain, calculate and predict the properties of quantum materials with strong electron correlations.

Georges and Kotliar were selected for the award by a panel of their peers. The American Physical Society established the prize in 1992 to recognize outstanding work in computational physics. The annual award is named after Aneesur Rahman, who pioneered the molecular dynamics simulation method. The prize was first awarded in 1993 to Nobel laureate K.G. Wilson.

Georges’ work has previously been recognized by numerous fellowships and awards, including the Anatole and Suzanne Abragam Prize of the French Academy of Sciences, the 2004 Prix Dargelos, the 2006 Europhysics Prize in condensed matter physics, the 2007 CNRS silver medal, a 2012 Synergy award from the European Research Council, and the 2014 Hamburg Prize for Theoretical Physics. He is a member of the French Academy of Sciences.