Prize Recipient

Marcus Muller
Johannes Gutenberg University, Germany

Citation:

"For the development of powerful analytic and computational methods, and their application to the structure and dynamics of polymers."

Background:

Müller studied physics at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, where he received his Diplom (MS) in 1992 and his Ph.D. summa cum laude in 1995 working with Kurt Binder on structure and thermodynamics of polymer blends. After a TRACS visit at the EPCC Edinburgh, working with Mike Cates, he went as a Feodor Lynen fellow to the University of Washington, where he worked with Michael Schick on homopolymer/copolymer mixtures, and on pore formation and, recently, fusion of model bilayer membranes. He returned back to Mainz and obtained his Habilitation in theoretical physics in 1999. He is currently Hochschuldozent at the Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, and a Heisenberg fellow of the German Science Foundation (DFG).

Müller's research interests focus on the phase behavior and interface properties in polymer blends, solutions and amphiphilic systems. Quantitatively comparing computer simulation and numerical self-consistent field calculations, he investigates wetting and phase behavior in thin films, self-assembly of copolymers and binary brushes, the kinetics of phase separation, and coarse-grained models for membranes. He is member of the German Physical Society (DPG) and the APS.

Selection Committee:

Frank S. Bates (Chair), Richard Register, M. Muthukumar, Ralph Colby