Dept. of Physics 2018 Summer Internship Opportunities For undergraduate students

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1 Learning from the smallest the dynamical behaviour at the nanoscale Dr Francesca Baletto Type of project: Computational Type of Activity: Writing and using a piece of code in Python The student should learn how to use Molecular Dynamics simulations both quantum and classicalto study the dynamical evolution of small metallic nanoparticles, a very hot topic in cluster physics. The candidate should find the best criteria to generate a suitable database to be used as initial value for a machine learning procedure. Then, the candidate will benefit of using an existing software, developed in the DeVita s group, and to interact so far with two research groups. This is a quite new procedure, which potentially allows the study of metallic nanoparticles with the goal to understand the minimum sizes required to predict the evolution at larger sizes with still an unprecedented accuracy of the interatomic potential. The student will strength his/her programming skills (mainly Python) and he will be part of the research group and he/she will attend and actively contribute to the weekly group meetings in such a way to taste the research career. : 5CCP211C, Structure of Matter, a lot of patience for coding. Numerical modelling and machine learning; nanoscale physics 1

2 Alloyed or not alloyed? This is still an open question at the nanoscale Dr Francesca Baletto Type of project: Computational Type of Activity: Working at a computer; developing of a new code to be part of an existing software The student should implement a new code for studying the segregation alloying properties of bimetallic nanoparticles for a variety of shapes, sizes, and chemical compositions. The goal is to use a Metropolis Monte Carlo algorithm to explore different chemical configurations observed in experiments and literature, such as Janus to core-shell, to mixed pattern, and to couple it with existing codes to geometrical build nanoparticles, and to interface it with an existing Molecular Dynamics code, named LoDiS maintained in Baletto s group, for the local minimization, energy calculation. The student will strength his/her programming skills (both Python and Fortran) and he will be part of the research group and he/she will attend and actively contribute to the weekly group meetings in such a way to taste the research career. 5CCP211C Introduction to Numerical Modelling All year 1 subjects, with a focus on Structure of Matter, Classical Mechanics and Thermodynamics. Programming skills (or at least a commitment in coding) F. Baletto and R. Ferrando, Review of Modern Physics 77 (2005) 371 R. Ferrando, J. Jellinek, R.L. Johnston, Chem Rev. 108 (2008) 845 2

3 Telescope and astrophysics Prof Malcolm Fairbairn I am looking for a student who will either help developing the telescope or work on Gaia data to study constraints on modified gravity and dark matter using dwarf spheroidals. Ideally a bit of both. Students should be good at solving problems, interested in astrophysics and unafraid of coding and ideally a bit of D.I.Y. Investigation of electrokinetic behaviour of ionic solutions confined between lipid and/or surfactant membranes using molecular dynamics simulations Dr Chris Lorenz The structure and dynamics of water at nanoscale confinement has been of significant interest in the past decade or so. Also of interest is the development of the electronic double layer when ionic solutions are in contact with interfaces as is the case of water near membranes made from lipid and/or surfactant molecules. In this project, we will utilise the power of atomistic computer simulations to gain a detailed picture of the structure of the water and ions confined between membranes of lipids and/or surfactants. Additionally we will investigate how the development of ionic double layer affects the dynamics of the flow of the ionic solutions between the membranes. In doing so, we will investigate the effect of different valency ions in solution and different types of lipids/surfactant molecules (zwitterionic, charged, ). Investigating the interaction between drug and drug delivery vehicle constituent molecules using molecular dynamics simulations Dr Chris Lorenz Computer simulation is a promising tool in the study of structure-performance relationship of chemical products. The aim of this project is to use classical molecular dynamics simulations to study how structure of the molecules used in drug delivery vehicles (e.g. surfactant/polymeric/lipid molecules) affects the drug uptake of the micelles. In doing so we will be investigating how different functional groups for head groups or different lengths of hydrophobic tails effect the interfacial properties of the drug delivery vehicles and how they effect the interactions with the drug molecules. This work will be done in collaboration with Dr. Sylvia McLain s experimental group at University of Oxford and Prof. Jayne Lawrence s experimental group in the Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences at King s College London. This project builds upon existing successful collaborations that my group has established with these two groups. This project is well suited for students who are particularly interested in soft matter physics or biophysics, computational research, and who are capable of writing a bit of code in a programming language of your liking to conduct some analysis of the simulations. 3

4 Evanescent Gravitational Waves Dr Francisco Rodríguez Fortuño & Dr Eugene Lim Type of project: Theoretical Type of Activity: Theoretical calculation Evanescent Electro-magnetic waves occur when EM waves penetrate a conductor or when they get reflected when they travel through different media. Gravitational Waves should exhibit the same behaviour. Evanescent electro-magnetic waves occur when EM waves penetrate a conductor or when they undergo total internal reflection at the interface of different media. Gravitational Waves should exhibit the same behaviour. Recent works in electro-magnetism have shown that the polarization of evanescent waves exhibits unique properties, we wish to explore whether similar results are obtained for gravitational waves. The project is to calculate the behaviour and character of evanescent GW, and see if we can detect these novel polarizations in GW interferometers. General Relativity, Electromagnetism, Optics. 4

5 Developing a graphical user interface (GUI) for 3 F fluorescence microscopy data analysis Prof Klaus Suhling and Yurema Teijeiro Type of project: Experimental, Computational Type of Activity: Research lab work, computer work, programming, data analysis Fluorescence microscopy is a minimally invasive technique, specific and sensitive, which allows the study of many features of cells and their structure. Therefore, it is of great interest maximising the information from the limited photon budget of fluorescent labels before their irreversible bleaching. In our lab, this is achieved by applying different techniques at the same time [1], which are: Timeresolved Fluorescence Lifetime IMaging (tr-flim), time-resolved Fluorescence Anisotropy IMaging (tr- FAIM) and Fluorescence Recovery After Photobleaching (FRAP). We can refer to them as 3 F and they yield information about the fluorescence lifetime, rotational and translational dynamics of the probe, respectively, and, importantly, an image [2]. There is no specific software that enables the analysis of these data as it uniquely involves data collection via different techniques, and the application of different statistics for each technique. Currently, each software focuses on the analysis of a single specific data format, e.g. for fluorescence lifetime images, or FRAP recovery curves. So there is a need of customising our own software in order to analyse our data. The project will focus on the creation and optimization of software-based algorithms, which will ultimately merge in a GUI in MATLAB. This will provide the user an easy and friendly way to analyse the 3 F data. This will be tested on real data from biological samples. The potential candidate should be able to program in C or C++ and in MATLAB. The candidate should also feel comfortable when dealing with maths statistics as they consist of one of the main points in the creation of the algorithms. [1] J. A. Levitt, P. E. Morton, G. O. Fruhwirth, G. Santis, P. H. Chung, M. Parsons and K. Suhling. Simultaneous FRAP, FLIM and FAIM for measurements of protein mobility and interaction in living cells. Biomed Opt Express 6(10) , [2] W. Becker. Advanced Time-Correlated Single Photon Counting Applications, Springer Series in Chemical Physics 111, Springer (Berlin, Heidelberg),