News
April 2024
Welcome to Iván Zerón Jiménez who has just joined our group as a postdoctoral research associate. His research will focus on the effect of electric fields on the dynamics of soft materials.
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March 2024
Luca's latest work on dynamics of confined cuboids, in collaboration with José Manuel Romero from the University of Seville, has just been accepted for publication in The Journal of Chemical Physics. Pre-print available here.
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During the 23rd Andalusian Science Week at the University of Granada, we conducted an outreach activity titled Observing liquid crystals through a liquid crystal, aligning closely with our research project UNBOUND. Details have recently published in Liquid Crystals Today! Check here for details.
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December 2023
Many congratulations to Justinas for his successful PhD viva and for completing his PhD degree! Click here and here to know more about Justinas' research over his years at the University of Manchester.
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November 2023
Alessandro joins the Carlos I Institute of Theoretical and Computational Physics
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July 2023
The Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation has selected our project for funding!
GENESIS will explore the physics of stimuli-responsive smart nanomaterials and will bring together researchers from the University of Granada (leading), the University of Manchester, the Metropolitan Autonomous University, the University of Freiburg and the University of Florence. More details here.
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June 2023
Our work in collaboration with Antonio Puertas (University of Almeria) and Alejandro Cuetos (Pablo de Olavide University) on active microrheology in smectic liquid crystals has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation. This paper will be part of the special issue "Computational and theoretical studies focused on self-assembly and molecular organization”.
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June 2023
Adri Escañuela Copado, a physicist from the University of Granada and master in theoretical physics awarded by the University of Salamanca, joins our group to investigate the effect of functional nanoparticles on the behaviour of polymers. His research is sponsored by the U. S. Army Research Office. Welcome to the group, Adri!
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June 2023
The work by Justinas on the transport properties of Mie fluids predicted by machine-learning algorithms and molecular dynamics simulation has just been accepted by The Journal of Chemical Physics! This paper is the results of a very exciting collaboration with IBM and will be part of the special issue Machine Learning Hits Molecular Simulations.
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March 2023
Adrián Diaz Acosta, recently graduated in Chemistry at the University of Huelva and currently taking a master degree in Molecular Simulation, has joined our group at the University of Granada. Adrián is sponsored by the Andalusian Government and will contribute to the project UNBOUND. Welcome Adrián!!
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December 2022
New research project just funded by Junta de Andalucía!
Unveiling the boundaries of biaxial nematics for energy-efficient displays (UNBOUND). One PhD position already available. Click here for details.
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November 2022
Luca's work on the kinetics of isotropic to string-like phase switching in electrorheological fluids of nanocubes has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Chemical Physics.
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September 2022
Our works on the microrheology and field-induced dynamics of hard board-like particles have been published on Physical Review E and the Journal of Molecular Liquids.
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August 2022
Our work on the microrheology of nematic and smectic liquid crystals of colloidal rods, in collaboration with Alejandro Cuetos and Antonio Puertas, has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Molecular Liquids.
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July 2022
Congratulations to Justinas for his first paper, on the dynamics of nanotrimers, published on Physical Review E.
April 2022
Alessandro appointed María Zambrano Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Applied Physics, University of Granada.
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January 2022
Our work in collaboration with the University of Guanajuato on the long-time relaxation dynamics of soft rods published on Physical Review E.
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December 2021
Many congratulations to Effran who has successfully passed his PhD viva!
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August 2021
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July 2021
Our paper on microrheology of colloidal rods has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Colloid and Interface Science. This work was the output of a great (and still ongoing!) collaboration with Antonio Puertas (University of Almería) and Alejandro Cuetos (Pablo de Olavide University, Seville).
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March 2021
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February 2021
Luca's OCSI algorithm to calculate overlaps between hard spheres and hard cuboids published in Algorithms.
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September 2020
Alessandro appointed "profesor visitante" at Pablo Olavide University in Seville, for 2020/21.
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July 2020
Congratulations to Gerardo for his PhD degree! Gerardo's thesis is available here
Our work on freely-rotating cuboids published as a communication in Soft Matter
Our last version of the DMC technique extended to heterogeneous systems published in PRE
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March 2020
- Our work on the diffusion of confined glycerol published in Applied Surface Science
- Our paper on self-assembly of methacrylate-based copolymers published in JCIS
- Our study on the dynamics of cuboids accepted in PRE
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September 2019
- The work by Gerardo on methacrylate-based copolymers accepted for publication on MSDE.
- Justinas Slepavicius joins our group as PhD student. His project, funded by EPSRC and IBM Research UK, will study the the self-assembly of colloidal clusters.
- Luca Tonti joins our group as PhD student, funded by the Leverhulme Trust. Luca will work on the macromolecular diffusion in ordered colloids.
August 2019
- New project funded by The Royal Society to start a collaboration with Prof Antonio Puertas, University of Almería. More details here.
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July 2019
- Fabián García Daza joins our group as postdoctoral research assistant (PDRA) for the next three years. Fabián is
sponspored by the Leverhulme Trust.
- Alessandro visits Prof Gil-Villegas at the University of Guanajuato
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January 2019
- Massimiliano Chiappini (Utrecht) and Javier Luque (Palermo) are visiting our group for three months
- Our work on the effect of an external field on the formation of the biaxial nematic phase accepted in Soft Matter
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December 2018
- The work by Gerardo on methacrylate-based copolymers accepted for publication on MSDE
- Research grant awarded by The Leverhulme Trust
We have been awarded a Leverhulme Trust Research Project Grant (RPG-2018-415) to investigate the effect of order on the diffusion of macromolecules in colloidal suspensions and to extend our DMC method to systems incorporating space heterogeneities. The research has two key goals: (i) understanding the effect of order on the diffusion of macromolecules in crowded colloidal suspensions, and (ii) developing a new computational method to investigate the dynamics of these systems under the most general conditions, which can include transitory unsteady states and density inhomogeneities. We are interested in employing a simulation technique, originally conceived in our group and known as Dynamic Monte Carlo (DMC), to unravel the macromolecular diffusion in colloidal suspensions exhibiting ordered crowding and whose dynamics fully unfolds over time scales that are especially challenging for traditional simulation strategies.
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November 2018
Work on the formation of the biaxial nematic phase in the presence of an external field submitted
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October 2018
Paper on the ubiquitous nature of non-Gaussianity in Soft Matter published in PRE
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September 2018
- CCP5 Annual General Meeting organised by our group in Manchester
- Gerardo and Pallabi present their work at the CCP5 Annual General Meeting in Manchester.
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June 2018
Prof Alejandro Gil-Villegas, Dr Marco Laurati and his PhD student, Mayra Lara Peña, from the University of Guanajuato, visit us during one month.
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May 2018
Alessandro invited ad the Doctoral Day of the School of Chemical Engineering, Rovira i Virgili University, Tarragona
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Gerardo receives the best poster prize at the CEAS PGR Conference
Gerardo has been awarded the best poster prize at the CEAS PGR Conference for his work on coarse-grained models for methacryalte-based block copolymers.
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Alessandro speaks at the IACIS 2018 Conference in Rotterdam
Alessandro has presented the work on the phase behaviour of board-like particles at the 16th Conference of the International Association of Colloid and Interface Scientists.
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Paper on the DMC method applied to out-of-equilibrium processes published in PCCP
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March 2018
- Newton Mobility Grant awarded by The Royal Society
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- Daniel receives the Young Scientist Award by the British Liquid Crystal Society
Daniel has been awarded the prestigious Young Researcher Award by the British Liquid Crystal Society. He will receive the award at the Annual Conference of the BLCS, where he has been invited to give a talk on Manipulating Nematic Elastomers with Light. Many congratulations to Daniel!
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- Fully-funded PhD scholarship available to investigate complex liquid-solid interfaces
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December 2017
- The Multiscale Modelling Group receives a Green Impact Award
As part of the University social responsibility agenda, the 9th edition of the Green Impact Awards took place in November. Our School has been awarded 10 awards and 1 bronze has been awarded to the Multiscale Modelling Group. Gerardo contributed to this success! Congratulations!
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- Alessandro visits Alejandro Cuetos' group at the Pablo de Olavide University
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- Alessandro has been invited to deliver a talk on the phase behaviour of colloidal cuboids at the group of Prof Luis Rull and Prof José Manuel Romero, at the Department of Atomic, Molecular and Nuclear Physics, University of Seville.
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November 2017
- Paper on the phase behaviour of bidisperse board-like particles published on Molecular Simulation
- Daniel visits the van't Hoff Laboratory at Utrecht University
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October 2017
Daniel and Gerardo showcase their research at the CEAS Research Away Day
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September 2017
Javier starts a post-doc at the University of Liverpool
Gerardo and Alessandro at Thermodynamics 2017
Gerardo has presented a poster on self-assembly of block copolymers and a talk on a molecular-thermodynamic theory to describe adsorption isotherms.
Alessandro has presented a talk on the self-assembly of colloidal cuboids and a poster of Javier's PhD work on the effect of polymer's chain stiffness in polymer nanocomposites.
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July 2017
Editorial Overview on Patchy Colloidal Particles published on COCIS
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May 2017
Javier's PhD Viva
Javier has succesfully defended his PhD viva and is now Doctor! Congratulations! To download his PhD thesis, click HERE.