Speaker:  Prof. Keith Promislow, Department of Mathematics, Michigan State University, Michigan

URL for Speaker:  http://www.math.msu.edu/~kpromisl/

Location:  LSK 460

Intended Audience:  Public

Amphiphilic networks are central to many types of energy conversion mechanisms, including those that drive organic life. Amphiphilic systems are formed by mixing a solvent with a hydrophobic-hydrophilic polymer. The systems phase separate, forming a rich array of network morphologies, including bilayers, pore, and micelle dominated structures. We present a reformulation of the classical Cahn-Hilliard type energy, based upon an unfolding of an energy proposed by De Giorgi. We derive sharp interface reductions, discuss the bifurcation structure of the system, and extensions to multi-component systems.

Keith Promislow is Professor of Mathematics at Michigan State University. His research interests include network morphology of amphiphilic systems induced by charged-polymer solvent interactions. He serves on the editorial board of Physica D, SIAM Math Analysis, and SIAM Dynamical Systems. He represented the American Math Society at the Coalition for National Science Funding’s 2011 Capital Hill Exhibit and was the 2010 Kloosterman Professor at the University of Leiden.