Theory of liquids and liquid mixtures and of their phase equilibria and interfaces

康奈尔大学的本杰明·威多姆（Benjamin Widom）获得了理论与计算化学项目的奖励，因为他利用统计力学和热力学的方法，对液体和液体混合物的能量学和结构、这种流体所经历的相变以及流体相之间界面的结构和结构转变进行了理论研究。一项研究侧重于两种类型的润湿过渡之间的边界，其中一系列一阶润湿过渡和一个二阶过渡在“三临界”润湿点连接；并研究线张力在接近临界点时的行为。另一项研究侧重于疏水效应。这些研究在科学、技术和社会的许多重要和非常不同的领域具有广泛的影响。例如，湿润是土壤科学的中心问题；它在工业浮选分离系统中起着至关重要的作用；它对肺在呼吸过程中的正确动作也至关重要。疏水效应在化学和生物学中有许多表现。

Benjamin Widom of Cornell University is supported by an award from the Theoretical and Computational chemistry program for the theoretical study, by the methods of statistical mechanics and thermodynamics, of the energetics and structures of liquids and liquid mixtures, of the phase transitions such fluids undergo and of the structures and structural transformations of the interfaces between fluid phases. One study focuses on the borderline between two types of wetting transition, where a range of first-order wetting transitions and one of second-order transitions join at a point of "tri-critical" wetting; and to study the behavior of the line tension as that tricritical point is approached. Another study focuses on hydrophobic effects.The studies have broad impact in many important and very different areas of science, technology and society. For example, wetting is a central concern in soil science; it is crucial in industrial flotation and separation systems; it is also crucial for the proper action for the lungs in respiration. Hydrophobic effects have numerous manifestations throughout chemistry and biology.