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I am investigating the phase behaviour of pure lipid bilayers, lipid bilayers with more than one lipid species, and lipid bilayers containing inclusions such as cholesterol, proteins and drug molecules. This work involves the development of Monte Carlo algorithms that are tested and applied to the above problems. One particular expertise involves the characterisation of phase behaviour using finite size scaling methods such as the Lee-Kosterlitz method to analyze the anture of the phase behaviour. New efforts are the development of a new off-lattice model for the lipid related projects, and a study of glassy behaviour in molecular crystals. of glassy behaviour in molecular crystals.

A second area of research is the study of hydration and hydrogen bonding in lipid systems, again using simulation methods. For this project, a series of lattice models has been developed; they are also being used in a number of new studies on the effects of both hydrogen-bonding and non-hydrogen bonding impurities on the phase behaviour of anhydrous lipid systems.

At the Centre I collaborate closely with Professor Hong Guo on problems related to polymer physics. We have developed an new, fast off-lattice algorithm with which we can study large systems composed of many polymers. We have applied it to micro-phase separation for polymer brushes in a poor solvent and in polymer brushes composed of two immiscible homopolymers. We have extended this work to polymer brushes under shear and are now examining a variety of related problems such as the behavour of colloidal systems composed of polymer coated spherical particles. We are also studying random heteropolymer kinetics and protein folding using molecular dyanamics and developing new analytic methods for the polymer problems.

Other research activities include: frustrated magnetic systems, micro-phase separation and phase behaviour in micro-emulsions, pattern formation in biological systems, simulation of lipid vesicle morphologies, and lipopolymers.

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Photograph and HTML code by A. Kellerbauer