Physics Professor Uzi Landman is the recipient of the American Physical Society's (APS) 2005 Aneesur Rahman Prize for Computational Physics. He accepted the award at the society's annual meeting in Los Angeles last month.

APS's citation recognized Landman "for pioneering computations that have generated unique insights into the physics of materials at the nanometer length scale, thereby fostering new theoretical and experimental research."

Known across the globe for his trademark phrase "small is different," Landman is a pioneer of using computer simulations to discover new phenomena on the nanoscale.

"We cannot use the way physical systems behave on the large scale to predict what will happen when we go to levels only a few atoms in size," said Landman. "In this size regime, electrons transport electricity in a different way, crystallites have different mechanical properties and gold nanowires have strength twenty times larger than a big bar of gold, and inert metals may exhibit remarkable catalytic activity. But we know the rules of physics, and we can use them to create model environments in which we can discover new phenomena through high-level computer-based simulations."

Among Landman's research interests are artificial atoms, known as quantum dots, which can be used to store massive amounts of information in a compact space. Other areas include nanowires, nanojets, and nanotribology, the study of friction at the nanoscale.

Landman is a Regents' and Institute Professor. He holds the Callaway Chair in Physics and serves as the director of the Georgia Tech Center for Computational Materials Science. His honors include the Beams Award for Excellence in Research from the American Physical Society in 1999 and the 2002 Materials Research Society Medal.