Volker Heine
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Volker Heine FRS (born 19 September 1930 in
Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...
,
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
) is a
New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
/
British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...
physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...
. He is married to Daphne and they have three children. Volker Heine is considered a pioneer of theoretical and computational studies of the
electronic structure In quantum chemistry, electronic structure is the state of motion of electrons in an electrostatic field created by stationary nuclei. The term encompasses both the wave functions of the electrons and the energies associated with them. Electr ...
of solids and liquids and the determination of physical properties derived from it.


Biography

Volker Heine was educated at
Wanganui Collegiate School Whanganui Collegiate School (formerly Wanganui Collegiate School; see here) is a state-integrated, coeducational, day and boarding, secondary school in Whanganui, Manawatū-Whanganui region, New Zealand. The school is affiliated to the Anglican c ...
and the
University of Otago , image_name = University of Otago Registry Building2.jpg , image_size = , caption = University clock tower , motto = la, Sapere aude , mottoeng = Dare to be wise , established = 1869; 152 years ago , type = Public research collegiate ...
(New Zealand). In 1954, he came to
Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...
(UK) on a Shell Post-Graduate Scholarship to do his Ph.D. in physics (1956) as student of
Sir Nevill Mott Sir Nevill Francis Mott (30 September 1905 – 8 August 1996) was a British physicist who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1977 for his work on the electronic structure of magnetic and disordered systems, especially amorphous semiconductors ...
. In the following years he obtained a Fellowship at
Clare College Clare College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. The college was founded in 1326 as University Hall, making it the second-oldest surviving college of the University after Peterhouse. It was refounded ...
and became part of the new theory group in the Cavendish Laboratory and apart from a post-doc year and several sabbaticals and summer visits in the US, he stayed in Cambridge for the remainder of his career. In 1976, Heine became a professor and took over as head of the theory group which was by then called "Theory of Condensed Matter". He held that position until his retirement in 1997. Volker Heine has been a very active figure in the international scientific community, shaping in particular the landscape of the field of atomistic computer simulations in Europe. He initiated and later led the Psi-k network, a worldwide network of researchers working on the advancement of first-principles computational materials science. Psi-k's mission is to develop fundamental theory, algorithms, and computer codes in order to understand, predict, and design materials properties and functions. Key activities of Psi-k are the organization of conferences, workshops, tutorials and training schools as well as the dissemination of scientific thinking in society. Volker Heine was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1974 and of the American Physical Society in 1987. He was awarded the
Maxwell Medal and Prize The Institute of Physics awards numerous prizes to acknowledge contributions to physics research, education and applications. It also offers smaller specific subject-group prizes, such as for PhD thesis submissions. Bilateral awards * The Max ...
in 1972, the Royal Medal of the Royal Society (London) in 1993, the
Dirac Medal The Dirac Medal is the name of four awards in the field of theoretical physics, computational chemistry, and mathematics, awarded by different organizations, named in honour of Professor Paul Dirac, one of the great theoretical physicists of the 20 ...
of the Institute of Physics in 1994, and the Max Born Prize in 2001. He has been visiting professor at several universities around the world and External Scientific Member of the
Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research The Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research (German: ''Max-Planck-Institut für Festkörperforschung'') was founded in 1969 and is one of the 82 Max Planck Institutes of the Max Planck Society. It is located on a campus in Stuttgart, togeth ...
in Stuttgart.


Research

Volker Heine's research essentially covered three areas: (a) Understanding the behavior of materials from the calculation of their electronic structure; (b) Understanding the origin of incommensurately modulated materials; (c) Understanding the structure and properties of minerals from an atomic point of view. His main research topic is
electronic structure In quantum chemistry, electronic structure is the state of motion of electrons in an electrostatic field created by stationary nuclei. The term encompasses both the wave functions of the electrons and the energies associated with them. Electr ...
theory and particularly the development of various fundamental concepts for condensed matter physics. Here, his pioneering work on
pseudopotential In physics, a pseudopotential or effective potential is used as an approximation for the simplified description of complex systems. Applications include atomic physics and neutron scattering. The pseudopotential approximation was first introduced ...
s forms a basis of most presently undertaken electronic structure and total-energy calculations, in particular for semiconductors and so-called ''sp''-bonded metals. He also developed the basic description of electron-phonon coupling, and much of our understanding of the structure and atomic relaxation at surfaces was established by Heine. Furthermore, his groundbreaking work on the complex band structure and pioneering ideas in the theory of surface states provides the basis of present-day description and understanding of electronic properties of bulk and interfaces.; This includes the concept of
metal-induced gap states In bulk semiconductor band structure calculations, it is assumed that the crystal lattice (which features a periodic potential due to the atomic structure) of the material is infinite. When the finite size of a crystal is taken into account, the wa ...
at metal-semiconductor heterostructures and the understanding of
Schottky barrier A Schottky barrier, named after Walter H. Schottky, is a potential energy barrier for electrons formed at a metal–semiconductor junction. Schottky barriers have rectifying characteristics, suitable for use as a diode. One of the primary ...
s. Amongst his seminal contributions are also the formulation of a recursion method for electronic structure studies, a theory of incommensurate structures of polytypes of silicon carbide, and a model for incommensurate and framework structures of minerals. He studied magnetic properties of solids, various aspects of crystal phase transitions e.g. and thermal expansion and more. Volker Heine has published more than 200 research papers, several review articles and one text book.


References


External links

* Volker Heine, Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridg
(TCM)
* Volker Heine
Fellows' Directory, Clare College
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heine, Volker 1930 births Living people Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of Clare College, Cambridge Royal Medal winners People educated at Whanganui Collegiate School University of Otago alumni Maxwell Medal and Prize recipients Fellows of the American Physical Society