Modeling solvent environments : applications to simulations of biomolecules While much attention has been given to the development of realistic macromolecular models this book focuses on latest advances in modeling the equally important solvent environment in an accurate and efficient manner. A comprehensive view of the current methods for modeling solvent environments is presented in contributions from the leading researchers in the field. Throughout the emphasis is placed on the application of such models in simulation studies of biological processes although the coverage is sufficiently broad to extend to other systems as well. The book presents a comprehensive account of the many recently developed new methods and contrasts their different strengths. As such this monograph treats a full range of topics from statistical mechanics based approaches to popular mean field formalisms coarse grained solvent models more established explicit fully atomic solvent models and recent advances in applying ab initio methods for modeling solvent properties. BOOK JACKET