Title:
Walter Kohn and the Creation of Density Functional Theory
Walter Kohn and the Creation of Density Functional Theory
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Author(s)
Zangwill, Andrew
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Abstract
The theoretical physicist Walter Kohn was awarded one-half the 1998 Nobel Prize
for Chemistry for his mid-1960's creation of an approach to the many-particle
problem in quantum mechanics called density functional theory (DFT). DFT
establishes that the ground state charge density provides a complete
description of ALL the properties of any atom, molecule, or solid. This was a
breakthrough (both conceptually and computationally) because it had been
presumed previously that the vastly more complicated many-electron wave
function was essential for this purpose. In this talk, I present a
biographical sketch of Kohn's unusual educational experiences and the events
in his professional career which led him to create DFT. A coda explains how
the chemists came to award "their" Nobel prize to a card-carrying physicist.
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Date Issued
2014-09-22
Extent
64:00 minutes
Resource Type
Moving Image
Resource Subtype
Lecture