Understanding Molecular Simulation

Rating:
Summary: Excellent text for beginners in simulation
Review: Its an excellent book for those who are just beginners in MC & MD simulations. everything is very clearly explained with lot of examples and some related unsolved problems. the text explores this topic indetails with advanced chapters in later sections. Good for anybody int hsi field be it in materials science, physics or related fields.

Rating:
Summary: Understanding Molecular Simulations
Review: The book is aimed at readers who are active in computer simulation, orare planning to become so. Computer simulators are continuouslyconfronted with questions concerning the choice of technique, because there is a bewildering variety of computational tools available. We believe that, in order to make a rational choice, a good understanding of the physics behind each technique is essential. Our aim is to provide the reader with this background.

Rating:
Summary: A nice disappointment
Review: The title of the book is overly ambitious and falls short on its promises. The book is a good introduction to Molecular Mechanics (MM), Molecular Dynamics (MD) and Monte Carlo (MC) methods, with detailed descriptions of the methods used and FORTRAN (pseudo)code, covering from the basics to some middle-level and some advanced algorithms.
But it does NOT cover all the fields of Molecular Modelling, just the three mentioned (MM, MD and MC), there's no coverage of quantum mechanics methods, nor QSAR or other technologies. And, while it described the algorithms, I can't think of it going all the way through up to building applications. For this, Rapaport's makes a better job, and for a general intro to Molecular Modelling, Grant & Richards' Computational Chemistry is more comprehensive (albeit at a more superficial level). Nor does it provide much detail on the methods used in modelling biological macromolecules, an increasing application field for the methods discussed in the book.
All in all, this book fails to satisfy its cover title, it won't introduce to the whole field (just the areas of MM, MD and MC) nor does it go up to application level. But it IS a REAL GOOD introduction to the subjects covered and their basic algorithms,
with sample code, detailed descriptions and plenty of references to specialized articles, texts and resources.

Rating:
Summary: A great book for begginers.
Review: This book covers many interesting topics in molecular simulation, both Monte Carlo and M.D. It focuses on understanding the main ideas rather than giving long codes. It's a good place to start, but it also covers some ideas not found in many other books. When I try to extend my molecular dynamics program I always check what Frenkel and Smit have to say about it.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent introduction
Review: This book is an excellent introduction to the field of molecular dynamics simulation. It is easy to follow for a scientist entering the field and at the same time contains overview of most critical topics in MD simulation. The book's major goal is to describe how to simulate liquids, however it also mentions briefly the methods for gas and liquid simulations. List of references for further readings is very useful and complete.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent introduction
Review: This book is an excellent introduction to the field of molecular dynamics simulation. It is easy to follow for a scientist entering the field and at the same time contains overview of most critical topics in MD simulation. The book's major goal is to describe how to simulate liquids, however it also mentions briefly the methods for gas and liquid simulations. List of references for further readings is very useful and complete.

Rating:
Summary: Perfect for New Grad Students
Review: This book is how I bootstrapped my way into being a molecular simulationist. Anyone who can program in some language can get started writing simple routines for the basic MD and MC simulations.

I do Monte Carlo simulations at Princeton, and found this book to be the most helpful available for getting my research started. It is my most common reference, and is used extensively in writing background information for various research documents.

However, after you have written your first few codes, you will pass the level of this book and need to move on. I use it less now than I did my first year.

Every student in my group (Panagiotopoulos) has this book I think. And like me, they started with it, but moved on.

Rating:
Summary: Perfect for New Grad Students
Review: This book is how I bootstrapped my way into being a molecular simulationist. Anyone who can program in some language can get started writing simple routines for the basic MD and MC simulations.

I do Monte Carlo simulations at Princeton, and found this book to be the most helpful available for getting my research started. It is my most common reference, and is used extensively in writing background information for various research documents.

However, after you have written your first few codes, you will pass the level of this book and need to move on. I use it less now than I did my first year.

Every student in my group (Panagiotopoulos) has this book I think. And like me, they started with it, but moved on.