PME Distinguished Colloquium Series: Martin Gruebele, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- When:
- Wednesday, April 12, 2023 11:00 am - 12:00 pm
- Where:
- William Eckhardt Research Center, Room 161, 5640 S Ellis Ave, Chicago, IL 60637 and Virtual
- Speaker:
- Martin Gruebele, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- Title:
- Complex dynamics of simple systems: from quantum scrambling to ultrafast nanomaterials to xeno-cytoskeletal assembly
- Description:
-
Simple rules often underlie seemingly complex dynamics. In this talk, I will discuss a few of our results on how energy localizes or scrambles in quantum systems (quantum dynamics simulations), how we can detect energy transfer with nanometer spatial and femtosecond time resolution in single nanoparticles (carbon particle synthesis, scanning microscopy ), and how protein interactions can differ markedly inside the cell from the classic test tube experiments (in-cell microscopy and tracking), for example when bacterial tubulins assemble in mammalian cells. In each case, relatively simple principles are at work, but the intrinsically flawed nature of the systems (atomic or biological in nature) controls the dynamics and can lead to very heterogeneous results.