Atomistic computer simulations of shock waves

I present a brief history, from my own personal perspective, of molecular dynamics (MD) computer simulations of shock waves without chemical reaction. Beginning with radiation-damage cascades in the 1960's, followed by shock waves in perfect crystals in the 1970's, dense fluids in the 1980's, and dilute gases in the 1990's, the field of MD simulations (not to mention the computers supporting them) has evolved to the point where we can begin to study weakshock induced plasticity in the solid state, which is dominated by sparsely distributed initial defects. Finally, I conclude with a brief discussion of new developments in the related area of simulating shock-induced spallation in solids, and comment on atomistic simulations of shockwave phenomena of the future (including chemical reaction), made possible by the advent of massively parallel computers.