A festschrift for Professor A. H. Fuchs

It is a pleasure to dedicate this special issue of Molecular Simulation to Professor Alain H. Fuchs in honour to his 60th birthday. During his distinguished career, Alain has had a great impact in the field of molecular simulation, with many insightful contributions on the effect of nanoconfinement on fluid properties. He has also been a constant advocate for statistical mechanics and molecular simulation methods, both in the classroom and in the laboratory. Alain’s research interests encompass several of the traditional fields, including chemistry, physics, chemical engineering and materials science, as reflected by the contents of this special issue. Alain graduated from the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne with a degree in Chemical Engineering. He then moved to the University of Orsay for his graduate studies and was awarded a PhD in physical chemistry in 1983. Alain joined the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), one of the main research agencies in France, and started his brilliant career in the field of molecular simulation. In 2000, Alain became the first Director of the Laboratoire de Chimie Physique at Orsay, before serving as the Director of Chimie Paris Tech in 2006 and, most recently, as the President of CNRS in 2010. Alain received many honours, most notably the Palmes Académiques and the Légion d’Honneur, and was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Finally, as one of Alain’s former students, I would like to add a few words on another aspect of Alain’s contributions. Alain is an exceptional teacher and mentor, bringing to the classroom a perpetual enthusiasm and drive to apply the concepts of thermodynamics to explain a wide range of phenomena of the real world. His passion for thermodynamics and research certainly shaped the career of many of us! This special issue contains 27 invited papers, reflecting the wide range of research topics studied by Alain and his group: