Computational Biophysics and Soft Materials Group

The Pennsylvania State University

Materials Science and Engineering


News

10 November, 2009
20 October, 2009
21 August, 2009
21 May, 2009
7 May, 2009
20 April, 2009

Our ability to manipulate matter and predict its physical properties constitutes the driving force for designing tailor-made materials. The performance of these new materials will depend not only on their structure and composition, but also on the physical properties of the media these materials come in contact with.

Computational science has allowed the study of systems not previously possible, and solutions to problems that were previously intractable. The fusion of materials science and computational science gives us the opportunity to engineer materials for applications to separations, sensors, microelectronics, drug delivery, and biomaterials.

In our quest towards understanding such phenomena, we use materials theory, modeling and computer simulation, methods ranging from molecular-based equations of state with a rigorous statistical mechanics basis to high performance computer modeling. Our experience and recent work in all these areas will allow us to develop an interdisciplinary effort aimed at designing new materials with desired properties for specific applications.

The general objective of our research program is to develop computational procedures for understanding the structure-property relationships for polymeric materials (biopolymers, functional polymers) in order to create new materials with desired properties that meet application requirements. We believe that a synergetic relationship with experimentalists and industry is fundamental for achieving this goal. Our experience in chemical engineering, chemistry, and polymer science provides a unique platform to accomplish this research program. We exploit many theoretical and computational models in chemical engineering and biochemistry and integrate them into polymer science to coherently describe the behavior of polymeric materials in a universal fashion. The primary tools used in our research include a variety of computational and simulation methods carried out on high-performance computers.

We have initiate partnerships with: (1) experimental and synthetic researchers from our own university, and also with other experimental researchers at the University of Manchester, U.K., UNC-CH, Duke, and VCU in United States; and (2) government laboratories and industrial research centers. Professor Colina is co-Directing the new Center for the Study of Polymeric Systems at PennState, where our vision is to become the leading center that responds to the needs of industry, government laboratories and universities for experimental data and models to treat polymeric systems.

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Office: 324 Steidle Phone: 814-865-8310