Socials

We specialise in large-scale  molecular simulations of soft matter, including liquid-crystals and polymers, made possible through coarse-grained models  we develop. Many of our projects are inspired by real experiments or industrial problems touching on fundamental topics including emergent chirality, polymer crystallisation, colloidal glasses and novel ordering phenomena in liquid crystals.

• Applications are invited for the following PhD project through École Doctoral de Strasbourg. Self-funded PhD students are also encouraged to enquire. Profiling PBTTT8O Polymer Polymorphs with MD Simulations.

• One Masters 2 Physics Student for a 6 month internship at the Institut Charles Sadron (Strasbourg). Probing the Molecular Mechanism of Melting on Cooling using Molecular Dynamics Simulations.

• One Masters 2 Physics Student for a 6 month internship (fully funded) at the Institut Charles Sadron (Strasbourg). The project involves molecular dynamics simulations of pre-oriented amorphous polymers [MD-POP], aiming to better understand their structural and mechanical behavior at the molecular scale. You’ll join a collaborative research environment and work closely with experts in polymer physics and molecular modelling. More details about the project can be found here. 

• Two Masters 1 Physics Students for 20 days at the Institut Charles Sadron (Strasbourg). The project involves analysing ultra-large semi-crystalline polyethylene crystals grown in molecular dynamics simulations to address two outstanding problems in polymer physics. (1) Resolving the Density Anomaly in Polyethylene Crystallisation & (2) Role of Intra-Crystalline Chain Diffusion (ICD) in Amorphous Thickness Selection. You will gain hands-on experience with molecular dynamics simulations and develop/implement analytical tools to determine the extent of adjacent re-entry folding, entanglements and ICD to understand their role in (1) & (2). More details about the projects can be found in (1-Density Anomaly) & (2-Intra Crystalline Chain Diffusion). 

There are currently no open fully-funded  PDRA or PhD positions. Enquiries are welcomed all year round.