Physical & Theoretical
Physical chemistry encompasses diverse research endeavors, such as the investigation of photocatalytic and electrocatalytic processes for energy storage applications, utilizing metal-free catalysis on conductive carbon-based platforms. Another facet involves exploring extreme conditions, up to multimegabar pressures, to uncover the chemistry and physics of materials, leading to discoveries like room-temperature superconductivity and novel high-pressure compounds. Additionally, researchers delve into the nanoscale, employing scanning probe-based nanotechnology to design nanostructures and studying transport phenomena, material structures, and biophysics with applications ranging from nanofluidic systems to cancer biophysics.
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Russell Hemley
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- Behavior of molecules and materials in extreme conditions, particularly high pressures.
- Creation of new materials, including energy materials, using extreme conditions techniques.
- Creation of materials with ‘extreme properties’ such as:
- very high-temperature superconductors, novel high-temperature quantum materials, highly energetic materials, and superhard materials.
- Development of new high-pressure methods, including those based on diamond anvil cells.
- Synchrotron x-ray and infrared techniques applied to materials in extreme conditions.
- Planetary materials, especially those comprising planetary interiors.
Nan Jiang
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Goals: Probing chemistry of surface-supported nanostructure at the angstrom-scale; Determining the mechanism of chemical bond formation under various local environments; Investigating the interface of 2D materials and heterostructures at the atomic scale.
Methods: Scanning probe-based nanoimaging and nanospectroscopy
Petr Král
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- Modeling of coarsed materials
- Modeling of nanomedicines
- Modeling of nanofluidics
- Modeling of energy-related systems
- First principle methods
- Molecular dynamics simulations
- Mean-field and analytical methods
George A. Papadantonakis
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George Papadantonakis focuses on cancer biophysics. Using ab initio quantum mechanical calculations, we investigate the energetics of DNA damage induced by ultraviolet radiation and methylation. Nucleotide ionization energies provide a quantitative measurement of the electron-donating properties of DNA. Attack of DNA by methylation agents plays a ubiquitous role in mechanisms of chemical carcinogenesis and cancer chemotherapy.
Michael Trenary
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- Fundamental investigations of chemical reactions on transition metal surfaces of relevance to heterogeneous catalysis
- Studies of surface chemical reactions used in thin film growth by chemical vapor deposition
Huan-Xiang Zhou
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Combining theory, computation, and experiment to address a range of topics in molecular and cellular biophysics, including:
- Thermodynamic and dynamic properties of phase-separated biomolecular condensates;
- Membrane association and binding kinetics of intrinsically disordered proteins;
- Structures and pathways of the self-assemblies of amyloid and other amyloidogenic proteins
- Functional mechanisms of glutamate-receptor ion channels
- Structural biology of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis divisome