The International Research Fellow Awards Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct three to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad. This award will provide three months of support to Dr. Chris H. Wiggins to work with Dr. Erwin Frey at the Hahn-Meitner Institute in Berlin, Germany to study the statistical dynamics of biopolymers and biopolymer gels. The primary focus of this research is on the dynamics of elastic materials in Stokes flow (the fluid dynamics of the very small or the very slow). Specifically, this will involve the study of the finite-temperature dynamics of semi-flexible biopolymers both to explain existing experiments and to suggest new experiments in diverse fields from polymer physics to genomics. He will also study the interrelation between single-molecule dynamics and rheological properties of naturally-occurring biopolymer gels. Professor Frey will have a joint appointment at the Freie Universitat Berlin and the Hahn-Meitner Institute. Besides working with Professor Frey, the PI will have the opportunity to interact with other researchers in Berlin, such as Professors Reinhard Lipowsky and Udo Seifert.
