Research
I have been involved in the framework of the European Union Marie-Curie Research Training Network “Unifying principles in non-equilibrium pattern formation”. The position was for studies of theoretical aspects of pattern formation in thin films of soft matter. The work involved strong collaboration with the other knots (School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Nottingham, the Department of Chemistry at the University of Liverpool, the Fritz Haber Institute (Berlin), the Jozef Stefan Institute (Ljubljana), the Ecole Normale Superieure (Paris), the Materials and Surface Science Institute at the University of Limerick and the Nanoscience Centre of the University of Cambridge).
I was doing my PhD to Loughborough University, Department of Mathematical Sciences.
Subject of work:
I was working on different aspects of the pattern formation in thin films of soft matter with an internal degree of freedom. The work consisted in the development of theoretical models, their analysis using analytic and numerical tools and the comparison to experimental results of the other knots.
Main subject:
Theoretical modelling (discrete and continuum models) of the pattern formation in thin films of nanoparticle suspensions, to establish the roles of spinodal decomposition, hydrodynamics, nanoparticle and/or substrate functionalisation, and (de)wetting.
Recently I changed the field of my work and I am working on development of hybrid explicit/implicit solvent models for biomolecular simulations, which can be employed in multiscale simulations.
Publications:
[6] Patterns and Pathways in Colloidal Nanoparticle Assemblies
P.J. Moriarty, M. O. Blunt, C. P. Martin, E. Pauliac-Vaujour, A. Stannard, B. Tadic, M. Suvakov,
I. Vancea and U. Thiele, in The Oxford Handbook on Nanoscience and Technology: Frontiers and Advances, ed. A.V. Narlikar and Y.Y. Fu, Oxford University Press (2010), ISBN13: 9780199533046; page at OUP
[5] Modelling approaches to dewetting evaporating thin films of nanoparticle suspensions
U. Thiele, I. Vancea, A.J. Archer, M.J. Robbins, L. Frastia, A. Stannard, E. Pauliac-Vaujour, C. P. Martin, M. O. Blunt and P. Moriarty
J. Phys.-Cond. Mat. , 21 264016 (2009) doi: 10.1088/0953-8984/21/26/264016
[4] Front instabilities in evaporatively dewetting nanofluids
I. Vancea, U. Thiele, E. Pauliac-Vaujour, A. Stannard, C. P. Martin, M. O. Blunt and P. Moriarty
Phys. Rev. E , 78 041601(2008). doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.78.041601
[3] Fingering instabilities in dewetting nanofluids
E. Pauliac-Vaujour, A. Stannard, C. P. Martin, M. O. Blunt, I. Notingher, P. Moriarty,
I. Vancea and U. Thiele,
Phys. Rev. Lett., 100 176102 (2008). doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.176102
[2] Controlling pattern formation in nanoparticle assemblies via directed solvent dewetting
C. P. Martin, M. O. Blunt, E. Pauliac-Vaujour, I. Vancea, U. Thiele, and P. Moriarty,
Phys. Rev. Lett., 99 116103 (2007). doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.116103
[1] A genetic algorithm approach to probing the evolution of self-organised nanostructured systems
P Siepmann, CP Martin, I Vancea, PJ Moriarty, N Krasnogor,
Nano Letters.; (Letter); 2007; 7(7) doi: 10.1021/nl070773m
