We are a research group in the Department of Physics, Engineering Physics, and Astronomy at Queen's University. We work on Emergence, Systems Physics, Soft Condensed Matter, Materials Physics, and Statistical Mechanics.
Group NewsHere is some recent news from our group.
A news archive can be found at this link.
2024/05/24
Looking for new ways to apply physics? Check out our van Anders group talks at the CAP Congress.
2024/05/01
Kate Iacobucci is joining the group for summer 2024 as an NSERC USRA student. Welcome!
2024/05/01
Irina Babayan is joining the group for summer 2024 as an NSERC USRA student. Welcome!
2024/04/22
Irina Babayan received a Vector Institute scholarship. Congratulations!
2024/04/01
Irina Babayan received an NSERC scholarship. Congratulations!
2024/04/01
Connor Sterne will join the group in September 2024 for his masters. Welcome!
2024/04/01
Irina Babayan will join the group in September 2024 for her masters. Welcome!
2024/03/08
Great physics conversation at the APS March Meeting in Minneapolis.
2023/11/29
2023/10/25
Elizabeth Schnekenberger will join the group in January 2024 for her masters. Welcome!
2023/10/25
Elizabeth Schnekenberger will join the group in January 2024 for her masters. Welcome!
2023/09/30
Tola Alabi successfully defended her MSc Thesis. Congratulations!
2023/09/27
Noel Prangley is joining the group for 2023-2024 for his undergraduate engineering physics thesis. Welcome!
2023/09/22
Mira Sheahan is heading to Cambridge for graduate studies in philosophy of physics. Good luck Mira!
2023/09/01
Irina Babayan is joining the group for 2023-2024 for her honours physics thesis. Welcome!
2023/08/15
We focus on understanding, predicting, and controlling emergent behavior in classical systems, often involving colloids.
We use a variety of analytic and numerical approaches.
A complete list of publications can be found on this Google Scholar page. Here is a sample of some recent work.
Engineering hierarchically-structured materials requires breaking natural hierarchies. We show how to do that with pre-assembled building blocks.
Characteristic arrangement patterns determine 'prime real estate' in distributed systems design. But how can patterns be identified?
How do we know if a distributed system design is robust? We show system architectures can be classified by materials-inspired metrics.
Entropy often leads to disorder, but in some circumstances it can promote organization. We determine what those circumstances are.
If we want a material to exhibit a target property, what building blocks do we use to get it? We demonstrate how to do this reverse-engineering in colloidal materials.
To understand chemistry, we think in terms of bonds. But what does a bond require? Does bonding require atoms, electrons, and quantum mechanics?
Entropy is now something we can rationally engineer to make materials organize. How?
Is it possible to design a colloidal material that has a switchablephotonic band gap? We use simulation to show that compressing self-assembled truncated tetrahedra alters structure in a way to shift the band gap.
In designing, e.g., electrical, mechanical, or thermodynamic systems, engineers rely on principles that come from centuries of basic physics investigation. But what are the basic physics principles that guide how to integrate different systems together?
When does matter pack? We find that that for systems of colloids, even when they are found in dense packing structures, they didn't get there by packing.
Solid–solid transitions are ubiquitous in nature and technology, but we still have a lot to learn about them. How can we learn more, and what kind of minimal models can we construct to do so?
How do symmetric, anisotropic objects pack in a spherical container? This simple question is surprisingly difficult to answer, but it has implications for a wide range of physical systems.
Nanoparticle synthesis yields particles that play the role of atoms in nanomaterials, but have properties that can be controlled in ways atoms can't. What does that freedom mean for materials design, and how do we leverage it?
Entropy, especially in the context of anisotropic particle shape, can drive the formation of complex structural order. How does does it do that?
Nanoparticle synthesis inherently yields anisotropically shaped particles. How can we control shape to produce desired bulk behavior?
Here is a selection of non-technical or semi-technical accounts of our work.
Our work on pre-assembly for hierarchical materials was described at MRS Materials 360.
Our work on pre-assembly for hierarchical materials was described at Phys.org.
Our work on when matter packs was described at Phys.org.
Our work on shape driven solid–solid transitions was described at Phys.org.
Our work on packing in confinement was described at Phys.org.
Our work on Digital Alchemy was described in ACS Nano's In Nano.
Our work on shape entropy was described in Nature Materials.
Our work on shape entropy was described at Phys.org.
The wonderful people in our group.
Assistant Professor, Physics.
gva@queensu.ca
MSc Student, Physics.
20ooa@queensu.ca
PhD Student, Physics.
hazhir.aliahmadi@queensu.ca
PhD Student, Physics.
p.chitnelawong@queensu.ca
