The Density functional method for nuclear systems. History and perspectives

The earlier attempts to construct a density functional for nuclear systems are shortly reviewed. Some results obtained with the functional derived by Beiner, Mas and myself are then recalled, as well as the extension to excited states. The universality of the functional is discussed. A way to improve the efficiency of the functional is proposed, in which the parameters of the functional are allowed to vary according to the underlying shell structure of each nucleus.