This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)
Philip Geissler, University of California, Berkeley, is supported by an award from the Theoretical and Computational Chemistry program to develop theoretical models of the self-asssembly of nanoparticles. The work focuses on two model systems chosen to exemplify important themes with broad applications: 1) a protein complex that assembles into strikingly different extended patterns and 2) a system of magnetic nanocrystals driven to aggregate by solvent evaporation.
The research, while fundamental, has broad relevance to both biotechnology and nanotechnology. Through a collaboration with a performance artist and lectures to audiences of professional artists, the PI has initiated a diagolgue between the artistic and scientific community on themes common to both art and science.