“Coarse-Grained Model of Polymers: Theory and simulations” Prof. Marina Guenza, Chemistry
In macromolecular liquids, various phenomena such as phase separation, de-mixing, and selfassembly occur across different length scales from the molecular to the macroscopic level. Fully understanding these phenomena is challenging and requires reliable coarse-grained representations to explore the relationship between molecular structure and multi-scale properties under specific thermodynamic conditions. The Guenza group has developed coarse-graining theories to study the structure, thermodynamics, and dynamics of synthetic polymer systems and biological macromolecules. These theories have applications in creating advanced materials from synthetic polymers and in studying the mechanism of formation and function of DNA/protein complexes.
Our REU student will work with graduate students in the Guenza lab to collaborate on ongoing projects. Where needed, the REU student will also be taught basic programming in Python and the performance of Molecular Dynamics simulations in atomistic and coarse-grained representations.