Berni J. Alder, Interview Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550 U. S. A. Email:
[email protected] Û Û Û Ò Ö ×Ù ×× ÑÒ×Ø Ð ÖØÑÐ URL: ØØÔ Foreword Berni J. Alder was awarded the 2001 Bolzmann medal for inventing the technique of molec- ular dynamics simulation and showing that with such ”computer experiments” important dis- coveries in the field of statistical mechanics can be made, in particular the melting/crystallization transition of hard spheres and the long-time decay of auto-correlation functions in fluids. He has also played a key role in the development of Monte Carlo methods, both classical and quantum. Part I of this interview took place in Konstanz in the company of Giovanni Ciccotti and David Ceperley, on 9 September 2001, the eve of the SIMU conference “Bridging the Time- Scale Gap”. Part II was originally scheduled for the evening of September 11, 2001, and for obvious reasons, was postponed. It was completed in Berkeley during the mini-statistical mechanics meeting organized by David Chandler, January 2002. Conducting this interview has been a pleasurable duty for us, which we hope you will enjoy. Donal´ Mac Kernan and Michel Mareschal CECAM, Lyon, March 2002 To distinguish the interlocutors, we have used the following key. Plain text : Berni Alder; bold text G: Giovanni Ciccotti; D.C: David Ceperley; D: D´onal Mac Kernan; M: Michel Mareshal. 15 Part I The Early Years D: Berni, can you tell us about your childhood in Germany before you went to Switzer- land ? Yes, I lived in Duisburg for about eight years, and left in 1933.