Non-Equlibrium Self-Organizational of Colloidal Particles
Margarida Telo Da Gama
University of Lisbon, Portugal
Schlumberger Lecture
3:30pm - February 9, 2017
CCIS L2 - 190
Faculty Host: Dr. John M. Shaw and Dr. Hongbo Zeng
Abstract:
Colloidal particles are considered ideal building blocks to produce materials with designed physical properties. The state-of-the-art techniques for synthesizing these particles provide control over shape, size, and directionality of the interactions. In spite of these advances, there is still a huge gap between the synthesis of individual components and their spontaneous organization towards the desired structures. The challenge is controlling the dynamics of self-organization. In their kinetic route towards thermodynamically stable structures, colloidal particles self-organize into intermediate structures that are much larger than the individual particles and become the relevant units for the dynamics. To follow the dynamics and identify kinetically trapped structures, one needs to develop new theoretical and numerical tools. In this seminar, we will discuss these tools along with possible mechanisms to avoid undesirable trapped structures.
Biography:
Margarida is a Professor of Physics at the Universidade de Lisboa, where she coordinates the Centre for Theoretical and Computational Physics. Her work has focused on Soft Condensed Matter and has lead a theoretical group consisting of postdocs and several PhD, MSc and BSc students. They are the home of Soft Matter (Theory&Simulation) in Portugal and have well-established local collaborations as well as collaborations with the leading groups in Europe like Oxford and Cambridge. The group was recently awarded a generous fund by FCT through a research line of excellence. Margarida has been a member of several international evaluation panels (ERC, CSIC, and EPSRC), commissions (C3 IUPAP, several boards of the European Physical Society, and COST actions), and scientific boards of the most relevant conferences her field (EPS Liquids 2014 (Chairperson) and IUPAP StatPhys24).
Margarida has published over 150 papers and has given more than 50 invited talks at international conferences. You can read more about Margarida here.