Lecture
Tuesday, 27 March 2018
4:00pm - 4:45pm
Campus Stuttgart-Vaihingen, Pfaffenwaldring 47
Room V 47.03
Mesoscopic modelling of active materials: Selfassembly and emergent properties
Flocks of birds, schools of fishes, nanorobots or bacterial colonies constitute examples of living systems that coordinate their motion, constitute examples of active materials. They are intrinsically out of equilibrium making them very versatile, with a natural tendency to self-assemble.
The intrinsic non-equilibrium nature of these materials requires a dynamical approach that consistently captures the different relevant components that determine their behavior. Large system sizes are required to unravel the impact of long-range correlations that characterize them. These correlations lead to dynamical slowing down, hence implying the need for long simulation runs. The computational study of these materials is challenging and benefits from algorithms that show good scalability and can exploit HPC facilities. I will describe the simulation framework adapted to the study of active materials. Such a computational analysis provides insights into the general features determining the emergent properties of this new type of systems.
Biosketch
Ignacio Pagonabarraga is Director of CECAM. Since 2011 he is Full Professor in Condensed Matter Physics at the University of Barcelona. He has developed and exploited mesoscopic computational methods to model the dynamics of soft matter and complex fluids. Recently, he has also extended his interests to study the behavior of biological systems at molecular and cellular scale. He has attracted funding from the Catalan and Spanish Governments, and from the European Union, as well as from industrial companies and private foundations. He has been involved in 54 scientific projects competitively funded, as Principal Investigator. He is member of the External Council Board of the School of Mathematics and Physics of the University of Lincoln (UK). He has published 160 papers in peer reviewed international journals.
