"The Quantum Monte Carlo Symposium" Held in James Anderson's Honor

12 January 2011 -- James Anderson, Evan Pugh Professor of Chemistry and Physics at Penn State University, has been honored with an international conference -- The Quantum Monte Carlo Symposium -- in recognition of his many contributions to the fields of chemistry and physics. The symposium is part of Pacifichem 2010 -- a series of conferences organized by the International Chemical Congress of Pacific Basin Societies. The series was held in Honolulu, Hawaii, in December 2010.

Anderson's research focuses on a field of scientific inquiry know as Quantum Monte Carlo methods. These methods are used to compute quantum-mechanical energies and often are useful in solving electronic-structure problems. Anderson's research also has focused on kinetics, molecular dynamics, mechanisms of gas phase reactions, and rare-event theory. More recently, he has studied the effects of enzyme fluctuations, ultrafast detonations, and higher efficiency fluorescent lamps. His previous awards and honors include a Senior Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Bonn, Germany in 1994 and a Faculty Scholar Medal in 1992.

Throughout his career, Anderson has given many invited lectures and has organized many conferences at Penn State and throughout the country. These conferences include the Quantum Monte Carlo Sessions at Pacifichem 2005, the Quantum Monte Carlo conference for the American Chemical Society National Meeting in 2003, and the Monte Carlo Methods for Electronic Structure conference for PacificChem's meetings in both 2000 and 1995.

Anderson has published numerous scientific papers in journals such as Chemical Physics Letters, the Journal of Chemical Physics, and the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. He also authored a book, Quantum Monte Carlo: Origins, Development, Applications, which was published by the Oxford University Press in 2007. He is a member of the American Chemical Society, and a member and fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In addition, he has served as a scientific consultant at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the Sandia National Laboratory, Exxon Research and Engineering Company, and the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory.

Anderson earned Ph.D. and M.A. degrees at Princeton University in 1963 and 1962, respectively. He also earned an M.S. degree at the University of Illinois in 1958 and a B.S. degree at Penn State University in 1957. Before joining the faculty at Penn State in 1974, Anderson was an associate professor in the Department of Engineering and Applied Science at Yale University and an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Princeton University. He was appointed Evan Pugh Professor of Physics in 2002, and Evan Pugh Professor of Chemistry in 1996.

Pacifichem 2010 was sponsored jointly by the American Chemical Society (ACS), the Canadian Society for Chemistry (CSC), the Chemical Society of Japan (CSJ), the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry (NZIC), the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI), the Korean Chemical Society (KCS), and the Chinese Chemical Society (CCS).