CBE Seminar - Sharon Glotzer

Sharon C. Glotzer
John Werner Cahn Distinguished University Professor of Engineering
Stuart W. Churchill Professor of Chemical Engineering
University of Michigan
 

Digital Alchemy for Optimized Self Assembly

Abstract

Algorithmic self-assembly, especially of biomolecular structures, generally relies on designing interaction rules so that specific building blocks "fall" into place to assemble a desired target structure. In such cases, the complexity of the interaction ruleset scales with the complexity of the target structure. Crystallographic self-assembly, in contrast, relies on simple, uniform interactions among building blocks (atoms, molecules, colloids), often forming structures of great complexity without the need for interaction specificity. Even excluded volume interactions, in the absence of any other forces, can lead to the entropic assembly of remarkably complex, even aperiodic, ordered structures. In this talk we show how entropic as well as simple isotropic interactions can lead to such complexity, even if the building blocks are identical and relatively simple, and how the choice of "best" shape or interaction ruleset for a target assembly can be formalized through extended statistical thermodynamic ensembles and “digital alchemy.” By understanding how complexity can be achieved even from simple rules, the lessons we learn suggest that a generalized approach to targeted self-assembly could lead to simplifications in the rules used to make complex structures.

Bio

Sharon C. Glotzer is the John Werner Cahn Distinguished University Professor of Engineering and the Stuart W. Churchill Collegiate Professor of Chemical Engineering, and Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Physics, Applied Physics, and Macromolecular Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.  She is member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a fellow of the American Physical Society, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.  She received the B.S. degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Ph.D. degree from Boston University, both in physics. Prior to joining the University of Michigan in 2001 she worked for eight years at the National Institute of Standards and Technology as co-founder and Director of the NIST Center for Theoretical and Computational Materials Science.

Glotzer’s research on computational assembly science and engineering aims toward predictive materials design of colloidal and soft matter, with current emphasis on shape, packing, and assembly pathways.  Glotzer was the co-recipient of the 2014 MRS Medal awarded by the Materials Research Society.  She was the recipient of the Charles M.A. Stine Award in Materials Science and Engineering from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and was named a 2012 Simons Investigator.