POWRE: Interfacial Water From Molecular to Mesoscopic Scale

该奖项由化学系资助的女性研究和教育专业机会(POWRE)项目支持加州大学旧金山分校的Alenka Luzar博士的研究和教育活动。这项研究的目的是了解疏水现象及其与亲水性和受限几何空间中水的氢键动力学的关系。最终目的是阐明水环境中合成溶质和生物溶质之间的溶剂诱导力的静态和动态方面，特别强调动态方面。这些问题将用统计力学的方法从几个方面加以解决。将采用分子动力学模拟、大规模蒙特卡罗技术和场论模型。通过POWRE计划提供的机会将增强Luzar博士的研究潜力，以及她在课堂和研究实验室为本科生、研究生和博士后科学家提供教育指导的最终目标。拟议的研究计划与生物化学和材料科学中许多复杂和鲜为人知的日常现象有关。例子包括洗涤剂的作用、生物组织和生物膜中的相互作用。

This award of the Professional Opportunities for Women in Research and Education (POWRE) program funded by the Division of Chemistry supports the research and educational activities of Dr. Alenka Luzar at the University of California at San Francisco. The research aims to understand hydrophobic phenomena and their relationship with hydrophilicity and with water hydrogen-bond dynamics in confined geometries. The ultimate goal is to elucidate static and dynamic aspects of solvent-induced forces between synthetic and biological solutes in an aqueous environment with special emphasis on the dynamical aspects. These issues will be attacked on several fronts using the methods of statistical mechanics. Molecular dynamics simulations, large-scale Monte Carlo techniques, and field theoretic models will be employed.The opportunity afforded through the POWRE program will enhance Dr. Luzar's research potential as well as her ultimate goal of the educational mentoring of undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral scientists in both classroom and research laboratory. The proposed research program is relevant to many complex and poorly understood everyday phenomena in biochemistry and materials science. Examples include the action of detergents, biological organization and interactions in biological membranes.