Author Archives: Marco Pinna

Preston physicist in US calendar

Centre for Computational Physics

UCLan reports on the new US Soft Matter calendar.

Download yourself a free copy, and enjoy our image in December 2013 !

UCLAN PHYSICIST WINS AN INTERNATIONAL ART COMPETITION

A physicist from the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) has won an international art competition.

Small_nanoDr Marco Pinna won the first “Where Soft Matter Science Meets Art” competition, conducted by the Soft Matter World network, which is supported by The National Science Foundation of USA.

Hosted by the University of California at Merced, one of the top research universities in the USA, the competition presented the most visually artistic images from peer recognised, world-leading scientific research.

The twelve winning images are featured in the first Soft Matter Calendar 2013 while Marco’s image recently received another acclaim. It is now the main feature image for the new website of the Soft Matter World.

Marco said: “My winning image called…

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Distinguished Visitor Public Lecturer: “The Art of Science; the Science of Art”

iNano

by Dr. Johan R. C. van der Maarel

Associate Professor in Biophysics
Department of Physics
Faculty of Science
National University of Singapore

on Monday, 13th May 2013 in Darwin Lecture Theatre, UCLan, at 19:00vermeer_necklace

It often seems the worlds of science and art are unrelated: Logical truth versus emotional imagination. Still, science and art have much in common. Science has caused paradigm shifts in artistic expression and art is used for engineering design and communication of scientific knowledge.

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Distinguished Visitor Seminar – Johan van der Maarel

Centre for Computational Physics

“Biophysics and Complex Fluids”

by Dr. Johan R. C. van der Maarel

Associate Professor in Biophysics
Department of Physics
Faculty of Science
National University of Singapore

on Tuesday, 14th May 2013 in LE002, UCLan, at 15:00

My Inspiration. As a little boy, I always disassembled my toys in order to find out how they work. This obsession has involved into my passion to understand biological systems. How can living matter be organized and structured to such a high extent and, yet, be so dynamic with a cycle time of an hour or less? The answer to this apparent paradox would not only be of great value for our perception of life, but would also have practical implications for nano- and biotechnology. The laws of physics have proven to be valuable for the description of our material world. Do they also tell us how the interactions of macromolecules gives rise to life?…

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Flat organic molecules on Au(111) surface

Centre for Computational Physics

by Dr Manuela Mura

Centre for Materials Science Research Colloquium

Wednesday 20th of February 2013 at 13:00

Foster Building Lecture Theatre 3

Abstract: The phenomenon of self-assembly of atomic and molecular superstructures on crystal surfaces is attracting an increasing interest in nanotechnology. Self-organised nano-templates, where the self-assembled monolayer traps other molecules with selected functional properties, can be used to build large nanoscale structures. Self-assembled superstructures can form chiral domains ranging from 1D chains to 2D monolayers.

There have been many scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) studies of self-assembly of melamine, perylene tetra-carboxylic di-imide (PTCDI) or perylene tetra-carboxylic di-anhydride (PTCDA) molecules on the Au(111) and Ag/Si(111) surfaces. STM images of these networks do not reveal the exact details of the intermolecular bonding and the network growth. Therefore theory can help to determine the exact atomic structure of these networks.

We present a theoretical study of self-assembly of molecular networks formed by…

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Understanding a lifetime of passion in 1 hour – IoP Lecture on Birds by Professor Andrei Zvelindovsky

iNano

Until a couple of years ago and well into his seventies I watched my father, Muhammed Mukhtar, work 7 days a week 365 days a year and yet showed very little signs of stress. He always has an air of peace and tranquility even at the most frantic of times. I never understood why he was that way, perhaps it was his religious beliefs and convictions.

Apart from work my father has always been fascinated with animals and I have never seen anyone better with them. They seem totally at home with him. His great love however is birds, particularly pigeons. Everyday during spare moments at lunchtime or after work he alway finds time to feed pigeons, watch their flights, clean their space and inspect their wings and coat. As kids we never understood his passion but accepted it. My mother, however always resented the time and devotion my father…

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My experience as a NoWNANO DTC student

Centre for Computational Physics

CPG seminar

5 th December, 2012, at 15:00 in Foster Cinema

Christine Stokes (The University of Manchester)

Christine’s talk will consist of 2 parts:

Part 1: My experience as a NoWNANO DTC student.

After a very short questions and answers session she will continue with

Part 2: Simulations of bent core molecules using molecular dynamics.

Liquid Crystals are a state of matter that lies between the classical liquid and solid state. What defines a liquid crystal is the long-range orientation order similar to a solid and the ability to move translationally like a liquid, which provides the ability to change their configuration. There are numerous types of liquid crystals that each have individual properties. Commonly known liquid crystals are nematic, which has a common orientation but no positional ordering, and smetic, which has a common orientation and positional ordering in one direction and random orientation in the other directions. Due…

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