Professor Axel Dieter Becke was a world-renowned theoretical chemist and professor emeritus at Dalhousie University in Canada. After earning his BSc from Queen's University and completing his MSc and PhD at McMaster University, he conducted postdoctoral research at Dalhousie University from 1981 to 1983. He began his academic career at Queen's University in the 1980s before returning to Dalhousie in 2006 as the Killam Chair in Computational Science, where he held the prestigious Harry Shirreff Professorship of Chemical Research. For over three decades, Professor Becke dedicated his research to advancing the theoretical foundations of quantum chemistry, establishing himself as one of the most influential figures in computational science.
Professor Becke's seminal work on Density-Functional Theory revolutionized computational science by providing a fundamental framework for understanding electron motions in all terrestrial matter. His methods transformed how scientists simulate structures, properties, energies, and reactions of matter across chemistry, biology, physics, and materials science. Two of his papers were ranked by Nature as the 8th and 25th most cited papers of all time in all sciences, both single-authored works that have shaped modern computational chemistry. With over 110,000 citations, his contributions to the development of non-LCAO, grid-based numerical methodologies and exchange-correlation functionals in Kohn-Sham DFT became ubiquitous in computational software worldwide.
Professor Becke's work laid the foundation for applying Density-Functional Theory beyond metallic solid state systems to quantum chemistry where it describes molecular structure and energetics. As one of the most cited scientists globally, he received numerous prestigious honors including the Killam Prize, the NSERC Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal, and fellowships in both the Royal Society of Canada and the Royal Society of London. His legacy continues through the countless researchers who rely on his methods to study complex molecular systems with greater accuracy across diverse scientific disciplines. Even after his retirement from teaching in 2015, he remained engaged in full-time research, cementing his status as a transformative figure whose theoretical frameworks continue to shape computational science for generations of researchers.
