Prof. Andrew Bernoff (HMC) Awarded NSF Grant for Collaborative, Multidisciplinary Research Project
Professor Andrew Bernoff (HMC) has been awarded an NSF grant for $405,372 for collaboration with an experimental physics group at Kent State University and with chemical engineers and mathematicians at Case Western Reserve University.
The joint theoretical–experimental–numerical project, entitled “Dynamics of Interfacial Domains”, delves into the basic physical behavior of lipid layers at the micron scale; one classical example being the lipid bilayer that forms the exterior wall of most biological cells. Bernoff's expertise in fluid mechanics and numerical methods has allowed precise simulations that almost exactly reproduce the experiments at Kent State.
Bernoff and his former thesis student, Jacob Wintersmith '06 have published two papers in collaboration with the experimental group. Wintersmith spent part of last summer with the group at Kent State helping with the experiements and doing data analysis. This grant will allow several more Mudders to work in the lab at Kent State in the coming years.
Further information about the project is available from Prof. Bernoff's page on domain relaxation in Langmuir films.