Jerzy (Jerry) Bernholc

Drexel Professor/Director of Center for High Performance Simulation Specializes in Nanoscience/Materials and Biomolecular Simulations Click here to view Jerzy (Jerry) Bernholc's personal website.

Contact Information Physics Department NC State University Box 8202 Raleigh, NC 27695 Work Address: 121 Partners III, Centennial Campus Phone: (919) 515-3126 Fax: (919) 513-4804 Biography Prof. Bernholc joined NCSU's Physics Department in 1986. He also serves as a Visiting Distinguished Scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Dr. Bernholc obtained a B.S. degree with a double Major in Physics and Mathematics in 1973 and a Ph.D. in Physics from University of Lund, Sweden in 1977. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow at IBM T.J. Watson Research Center 1978-80 and a Senior Physicist at Corporate Research Laboratories of Exxon Research and Engineering Company 1980-86.

Areas of Interest Prof. Bernholc is working in several subfields of theoretical condensed matter and materials physics. In the area of semiconductors, he has contributed significantly to the theory of defects, impurities, and diffusion, semiconductor surfaces and steps, and surface optical response. In the emerging field of fullerenes, contributions include predictions of fundamental properties of solid C60 soon after its discovery. For nanotubes, the primary growth modes were uncovered and their extreme strength over 10 times greater than steel at one sixth the weight was predicted through simulations. Another important area of research is new methodology for electronic structure calculations, using advanced mathematical techniques and harnessing the power of parallel computers. A real-space multigrid method, developed at NCSU, enables ab initio studies of very large systems. It has been used extensively in large-scale simulations of semiconductors, nanotubes and biomolecules, and in studies of quantum transport in nanoscale systems. Current research focuses on nanoscale science and technology, nano and molecular electronics, novel nanostructured and bio-inspired materials, O(N) electronic structure and quantum transport methods, multilevel acceleration in electronic structure calculations, multiscale methods, and scalable parallel computing. Prof. Bernholc has co-authored over 200 papers and 175 invited talks at conferences, edited three books, and has given over 70 seminars and colloquia at Universities and Research Centers. Illustrations from his work appeared on the covers of Physics Today, Physics World, Science, Science News, and Science and Engineering Indicators. He helped organize over 50 conferences and symposia, and co-chaired workshops on Recent Developments in Electronic Structure Algorithms, CECAM's Grid, Multigrid and Wavelet Methods in Electronic Structure Calculations, and NATO's Multiscale Computational Methods in Chemistry and Biology. He is listed in Who's Who in America and Who's Who in the World. He was elected Chair of the Division of Computational Physics of the American Physical Society and served on numerous government panels and committees. He currently chairs the Scientific Advisory Board of the Center for Nanophase Materials Science at ORNL. Recent Publications "Computational materials science: the era of applied quantum mechanics," Physics Today. September. (1999). p. 30. Click here to view this publication. "Point defects and impurities in SiC and group III-nitrides," Encyclopedia of Materials: Science and Technology. P. Boguslawski and J. Bernholc. Elsevier, (2001). "Mechanical and Electrical Properties of Nanotubes," Annual Rev. Mat. Sci.. 32. J. Bernholc, D. Brenner, M. Buongiorno Nardelli, V. Meunier, and C. Roland. (2002). p. 347. "Ab initio investigations of lithium diffusion in carbon nanotube systems," Phys. Rev. Lett.. 88. V. Meunier, C. Roland, J. Bernholc. (2002). p. 075506. "Mn Interstitial Diffusion in GaMnAs," Phys. Rev. Lett.. 92. K.W. Edmonds, P. Bogusławski, B.L. Gallagher, R.P. Campion, K.Y. Wang, N.R.S. Farley, C.T. Foxon, M. Sawicki, T. Dietl, M. Buongiorno Nardelli, J. Bernholc. (2004). p. 037201. "Ab initio studies of polarization and piezoelectricity in vinylidene fluoride and BN-based polymers," Phys. Rev. Lett.. 92. S. M. Nakhmanson, M. Buongiorno Nardelli and J. Bernholc. (2004). p. 115504. "Optical Absorption of Water: Coulomb Effects versus Hydrogen Bonding," Phys. Rev. Lett.. 94. P. H. Hahn, W. G. Schmidt, K. Seino, M. Preuss, F. Bechstedt, and J. Bernholc. (2005). p. 037404. "Carbon nanotube-metal cluster composites: a new road to chemical sensors?," Nano Letters. 5. Q. Zhao, M. Buongiorno Nardelli, W. Lu and J. Bernholc. (2005). p. 847. "Non-equilibrium quantum transport properties of organic molecules on silicon," Phys. Rev. Lett.. 95. W. Lu, V. Meunier, and J. Bernholc. (2005). p. 206805. "Interfacial segregation and electrodiffusion of dopants in AlN/GaN superlattices," Phys. Rev. Lett.. 96. P. Boguslawski, N. Gonzalez Szwacki, and J. Bernholc. (2006). p. 185501. Click here to view a larger list of publications.