Michele Parrinello is currently a professor at ETH Zurich, and the Università della Svizzera Italiana Lugano, Switzerland. Together with Roberto Car he introduced the ab-initio molecular dynamics method, which he is still developing and applying. This method, which goes under the name of Car-Parrinello Method, represents the beginning of a new field and has dramatically influenced the field of electronic structure calculations for solids, liquids and molecules. He is also known for the Parrinello-Rahman method of molecular dynamics, which permits the study of crystalline phase transitions under constant pressure. Lately he has developed metadynamics, a new method for the study of rare events and the calculation of free energies. Parrinello’s scientific interests are strongly interdisciplinary and include the study of complex chemical reactions, materials science and protein dynamics.
