Herman Johan Christiaan Berendsen (22 September 1934 – 7 October 2019) was a Dutch chemist. He was a professor of

physical chemistry Physical chemistry is the study of macroscopic and microscopic phenomena in chemical systems in terms of the principles, practices, and concepts of physics such as motion, energy, force, time, thermodynamics, quantum chemistry, statistical mech ...

at the

University of Groningen The University of Groningen (abbreviated as UG; , abbreviated as RUG) is a Public university#Continental Europe, public research university of more than 30,000 students in the city of Groningen (city), Groningen, Netherlands. Founded in 1614, th ...

from 1967 to 1999.

Career

Berendsen was born on 22 September 1934 in

Apeldoorn Apeldoorn (; Dutch Low Saxon: ) is a municipality and city in the province of Gelderland in the centre of the Netherlands. The municipality of Apeldoorn, including the villages of Beekbergen, Loenen (Apeldoorn), Loenen, Ugchelen and Hoenderloo ...

. In 1962, he obtained his PhD ''cum laude'' from the University of Groningen, with a dissertation titled: "An NMR study of collagen hydration". In March 1963, Berendsen was appointed lector of physical chemistry at his ''alma mater'', and four years later became full professor. He retired in 1999. At Groningen, Berendsen was group leader of

molecular dynamics Molecular dynamics (MD) is a computer simulation method for analyzing the Motion (physics), physical movements of atoms and molecules. The atoms and molecules are allowed to interact for a fixed period of time, giving a view of the dynamics ( ...

. In 1976, Berendsen and Wilfred van Gunsteren together with the 2013

Nobel Prize in Chemistry The Nobel Prize in Chemistry () is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of chemistry. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, awarded for outst ...

winners

Martin Karplus Martin Karplus (; March 15, 1930 – December 28, 2024) was an Austrian and American theoretical chemist. He was the Theodore William Richards Professor of Chemistry at Harvard University. He was also the director of the Biophysical Chemistry L ...

and Michael Levitt were involved in the start of theories on molecular calculating. Berendsen was elected a member of the

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (, KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed in the Trippenhuis in Amsterdam. In addition to various advisory a ...

in 1979. In 2013 he was awarded the Berni J. Alder Prize by the

Centre européen de calcul atomique et moléculaire Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

. The jury amongst other points praised his development of the GROningen MOlecular Simulation (

GROMOS GROningen MOlecular Simulation (GROMOS) is the name of a force field for molecular dynamics simulation, and a related computer software package, which has been developed until 1990 at the University of Groningen, and at the Computer-Aided Chem ...

) type of force field.

Literature

Samulski, E.T. ''The Magical Power of Water: A Reminiscence of Herman Johan Christiaan Berendsen''. The Protein Journal 42, 168–176 (2023)

References

External links

Personal website of Berendsen

Profile
at the

Mathematics Genealogy Project The Mathematics Genealogy Project (MGP) is a web-based database for the academic genealogy of mathematicians.. it contained information on 300,152 mathematical scientists who contributed to research-level mathematics. For a typical mathematicia ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Berendsen, Herman 1934 births 2019 deaths Dutch physical chemists Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences People from Apeldoorn University of Groningen alumni Academic staff of the University of Groningen