Tenth Annual Greater Boston Area Statistical Mechanics Meeting
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Update: Thank you to the 75 people who attended and to everyone who gave an invited or a contributed talk and who chaored a session. We look forward to the eleventh annual meeting in October 2009.
Please join us on Saturday, October 18, 2008 at Brandeis University
to meet and talk with your colleagues in the New England area working
in statistical mechanics. The goal of these meetings is to offer
an informal, friendly, and supportive environment where people from a
variety of departments and institutions can exchange ideas and
where old and new friends can meet.
Contributed talks Directions
Announcements pdf file for posting Organizing committee Advisory committee
There will be coffee, tea, and bagels from 9:00 am to 9:30 am and
four sessions beginning at 9:30 am. Each session features a 25 minute
invited talk. The first three sessions also include several three
minute contributed talks. One Windows and and one Mac OS X notebook
computer will be available on which you can load your talk from a USB
flash drive or CD in advance of the session. Powerpoint and
Acrobat Reader will be available on both computers and Keynote will be
available on the Macintosh. Lunch will last for 60
minutes to give attendees a chance to mingle. Coffee and tea will be
available at all times. The meeting will conclude at approximately
3:30 pm to give attendees time to catch the train back to
Cambridge.
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9:00 - 9:30 am | Bagels, coffee, and tea |
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9:30 - 10:35 am |
Session I |
Peter Weichman, BAE Systems |
Chair |
9:30 - 9:35 am | Robert Meyer |
Brandeis University | "The new Brandeis MRSEC" |
9:35 - 10:05 am |
Michael Hagan |
Brandeis University |
"How viral capsids adapt to mismatched cargoes: Identifying mechanisms of morphology control with simulations." |
10:05 - 10:40 am |
Contributed talks |
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10:40 - 11:05 am |
Coffee and informal discussions |
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11:05 am - 12:10 pm |
Session II |
David Weitz, Harvard University |
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11:05 - 11:35 am |
Eleni Katifori |
Harvard University |
"Collapse and statistical mechanics of pressurized rings in two dimensions." |
11:35 - 12:10 am |
Contributed talks |
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12:10 - 1:10 pm |
Lunch and Informal Conversations |
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1:10 - 2:10 pm |
Session III |
Ophelia Tsui, Boston University |
Chair |
1:10 - 1:40 pm |
Contributed talks |
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1:40 - 2:10 pm |
Boris Svistunov |
UMass Amherst |
"Diagrammatic Monte Carlo." |
2:10 - 2:25 pm |
Coffee and informal discussions |
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2:25 - 3:25 pm |
Session IV |
Narayanan Menon, UMass Amherst |
Chair |
2:25 - 2:55 pm |
Contributed talks |
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2:55 - 3:25 pm |
Pedro Reis |
MIT |
"Anticracks: Localization of deformation in solid foams under compression." |
- Udayan Mohanty, Boston College, "Rare events and large thermal fluctuations in the ribosome."
- Jingshan Zhang, Harvard University, "Constraints imposed by nonfunctional protein-protein interactions on gene expression and proteome size."
- Amandeep Sangha, Boston University, "Chaperonin assisted protein folding."
- Sara Imari Walker, Dartmouth College, "Chiral symmetry breaking and the origin of proto-cells."
- Aleksandr Kivenson, Brandeis University, "Mechanisms of viral capsid assembly around a polymer."
- Mauro Mobilia, The University of Warwick, "Self-organization and evolutionary dynamics in mobile communities with cyclic dominance."
- Sidney Redner, Boston University, "How Many Species Have Mass M?"
- Ranjan Mukhopadhyay, Clark University, "Self-organized periodicity of protein clusters in growing bacteria."
- Julian Candia, Northeastern University, "Color triads in complex networks: Uncovering racial segregation patterns in U.S. high schools."
- Mitch Mailman, Brandeis University, "Soft modes in 2D frictionless packings of ellipses."
- Yoshihisa Fujii, Boston University, "Mechanical properties of polystyrene brush layer."
- Natalie Arkus, Harvard University, "Self-assembly at low N."
- Dave Sicilia, Dartmouth College, "Oscillon fields forever."
- Ken Kamrin, Harvard University, "Nonlinear elasto-plasticity for dense granular flow."
- Guangnan Meng, Harvard University, "Packing six colloidal spheres."
- Jerome Fung, Harvard University, "Self-assembly of colloidal spheres on droplets at low N."
- Homin Shin, UMass Amherst, "Mesophases of soft-sphere aggregates in strong segregation limit."
- Ranjit Chacko, Clark University, "Probability distributions, free energies, and spinodals."
- James Bagrow, Northeastern University, "Phase transition in the rich-get-richer mechanism due to finite-size effects."
- Christopher Serino, Boston University, "Statistical mechanics of damage."
- Deok-Sun Lee, Northeastern University, "Interactions and correlations in communication patterns."
- Chris Rycroft, "A multiscale simulation of dense granular flow."
- Lode Pollet, UMass Amherst, "Numerical simulations of Bosonic systems in condensed matter physics."
- Dapeng Bi, Brandeis University, "Soft glassy rheology: A model for dense driven granular assemblies."
- Felix Werner, UMass Amherst, "Virial theorems for trapped cold atoms."
- Kipton Barros, Boston University, "Generalizing Alexander-McTague: A new form of crystalline nucleation."
- Rachele Dominguez, Boston University, "Beyond Cahn-Hilliard-Cook: The early time kinetics of symmetry breaking phase transitions."
- Amila Hadziomerspahic, Wellesley College, "Rheology of precipitated silica in polydimethylsiloxane."
- Zhaohui Yang, Boston University, "Non-liquid-like behavior in molten polymer films."
- Maksim Kitsak, Boston University, "K-shell structure of complex networks."
- Jessica Leach, Boston University, "Surface absorption of polymers."
- Ya Liu, Brandeis University, "Segregation of polymers in 2D confinement."
- Tom Stone, University of Maine, "Probing the memory of a spin glass."
- Juyong Park, Northeastern University, "Diagrammatic perturbation methods in complex networks."
- Sune Lehmann, Northeastern University, "Communities in bipartite networks."
The cost of the meeting is subsidized by the New England Section of the American Physical Society, and hence there is no registration fee if you register by the deadline. Please join the New England Section if you are not already a member. It is necessary to register in advance so that sufficient food and refreshments will be available. The deadline for registration was Tuesday, October 14. If you know that you are coming and haven't registered, please send a message to Harvey Gould.
The location of the meeting at Brandeis University is the same as last year. The meeting will be held on the first floor of Lemberg Lee Hall, Room 180, in the Lemberg Academic Center. As you enter Brandeis through the main entrance on South Street, drive toward
the police booth and then take a left. At the next intersection take a left just after the
Admissions building. You will quickly be in the T parking lot, behind the theater.
Turn right and drive to the very far end of the lot and park. Walk up the roadway
ahead of you and enter the Lemberg Academic Center on your right.
Campus map, click on the PDF version.
No parking permits are needed. Signs will be posted on the day of the meeting.
The Brandeis/Roberts commuter rail stop is very convenient. Trains depart to North Station at 3:44 pm, 6:11 pm, 6:34 pm, and 10:14 pm. Buses are also available.
- The Fall 2008 Joint meeting of the New England sections of the American Physical Society (APS-NES) and the American Association of Physics Teachers will be held on Friday and Saturday, October 10 and October 11, 2008 at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. The theme, "Out of Equilibrium," is borrowed from our playbook. The speakers include Bulbul Chakraborty, Daniel Needleman,
Pedro Reis, Gene Stanley, Dan Steck, and Jeff Urbach.
- 36th New England Complex Fluids Meeting, Harvard University,
December 5, 2008.
- 100th Statistical Mechanics Conference, Rutgers University, December 13-18, 2008.
- Brandeis University has an opening for a tenure-track appointment in theoretical condensed matter physics beginning in Fall 2009. First consideration will be given to applications received by 12/01/08.
- Brandeis University has an opening for a postdoctoral researcher in condensed matter
theory beginning in January 2009. The postdoc will join our newly launched effort in
the area of active matter, the study of the collective properties of living systems and
systems with internal energy generation and dissipation mechanisms. This effort is an
integral part of the new Brandeis MRSEC and offers extensive opportunities for
experimental collaborations in active matter and other areas of the MRSEC. Applications with CV, research statement, and
three letters of recommendation should be sent to Bulbul Chakraborty. First consideration will be given to applications received by 11/30/08.
- The Department of Physics at Brandeis University has an opening in Spring 2009 for a part-time lecturer to teach a junior/senior-level course on Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics. This opportunity may be appealing for post-docs trying to expand their teaching portfolio. Contact Bulbul Chakraborty for more information.
- Brandeis has just received a MRSEC grant on "Constraints and Frustration in Nano-Structured and Bio-Molecular Materials" from the NSF. Expect some surprises at the meeting.
Previous meetings
- The first meeting took place on
Saturday, October 16, 1999 at Brandeis. We honored the memory of Eugene Gross, a founding member of
the physics faculty at Brandeis University and well known researcher in
statistical mechanics.
- Saturday, October 14, 2000.
- Saturday, October 20, 2001.
- Saturday, October 19, 2002.
- Saturday, October 18, 2003.
- Saturday, October 16, 2004.
- Saturday, October 22, 2005.
- Saturday, October 21, 2006.
- Saturday, October 13, 2007.
- Greg Huber, Jon Machta, Sid Redner, and David Weitz
Please send questions, comments, and corrections to Harvey Gould.
Updated 20 October 2008.