User:Askeys

From NSDL Materials Digital Library Soft Matter Wiki

Personal Information:

Name: Aaron Keys
Affiliation: The Glotzer Group @ The University of Michigan (2004-current)
email: askeys at umich dot edu

Education:

• September’04–Present: Progress towards Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at the University of Michigan.
• Spetember’00-May’04: B.S.E. in Chemical Engineering at the University of Michigan.

Awards and Honors:

• Summa Cum Laude (2004)
• Omega Chi Epsilon (2002-2004)
• James B. Angell Scholar (2002)
• William J. Branstrom Freshman Prize (2001)

Selected Publications:

1. S.C Glotzer and A.S. Keys, "A tale of two tilings," Nature 454, 420-421 (2008) [1]
2. A.S. Keys and S.C. Glotzer, “How Do Quasicrystals Grow?” Phys. Rev. Lett., Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 235503 (2007) [2].
3. A.S. Keys, A.R. Abate, S.C. Glotzer, and D.J. Durian, “Measurement of growing dynamical length scales and prediction of the jamming transition in a granular material,” Nature Physics 3, 260–264 (2007) [3].
4. C.R. Iacovella, A.S. Keys, M.A. Horsch, and S.C. Glotzer, “Icosahedral packing of polymer-tethered nanospheres and stabilization of the gyroid phase,” Phys. Rev. E 75, 040801(R) (2007) [4].
5. Z. Zhang, A.S. Keys, T Chen, S.C. Glotzer, “Self-Assembly of Patchy Particles into Diamond Structures through Molecular Mimicry,” Langmuir. 21(25):11547-51 (2005) [5].

Featured Press:

1. Cover image on The National Academies Press Report: Physics 2010 [6]
2. "Quasicrystal Mystery Unraveled With Computer Simulation" Science Daily (Mar. 11, 2008) [7]
3. Research Highlights, Nature 451, 110-111 (10 January 2008) [8]
4. P.J. Steinhardt, "How Does Your Quasicrystal Grow?" Nature 452, 43-44 (2008) [9]
5. G. Biroli, "Jamming: A New Kind of Phase Transition," Nature Physics 3, 222 - 223 (2007) [10]

Selected Presentations:

1. A.S. Keys, A.R. Abate, S.C. Glotzer, and D.J. Durian, “Mechanism of quasicrystal nucleation and growth,” American Physical Society, March Meeting, Denver CO, (2007) [11].
2. A.S. Keys and S.C. Glotzer, and D.J. Durian, “Growing length scale for dynamical heterogeneity in an air-driven granular system near jamming,” American Physical Society, March Meeting, Denver CO, (2007) [12] .
3. A.S. Keys and S.C. Glotzer, and D.J. Durian, “Spatially Heterogeneous Dynamics and String-like Motion in Granular Matter and Comparison with Glass-Forming Liquids,” American Institute of Chemical Engineers Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2007) [13].
4. A.S. Keys and S.C. Glotzer, “Nucleation and Growth of Quasicrystals,” American Institute of Chemical Engineers Annual Meeting, Cincinnati OH, (2006) [14] .
5. A.S. Keys and S.C. Glotzer “Effect of Local Icosahedral Ordering on Supercooled Liquid Stability Against Nucleation,” American Institute of Chemical Engineers Annual Meeting, Austin TX, (2005) [15].

Projects:

Nucleation and Growth in Supercooled Liquids

Research Area: Condensed Matter Physics; Tools used: C/C++, Matlab. Details: The goal of this project is to explore nucleation and growth in various model liquids using Monte-Carlo simulations. The project involves creating new Monte-Carlo algorithms to enhance statistical sampling of nucleation, which is a rare, activated event. As a result of this project, we have gained fundamental insight into the effect of local icosahedral ordering on nucleation and growth, including the growth of rare quasicrystalline phases.

A quasicrystal nucleus (yellow atoms) grows from a bulk liquid (blue) by assimilating icosahedral clusters (red) whose formation is favoured in a supercooled liquid. (Atoms are shown at 60% of their actual size relative to the space they occupy.) Image by A.S. Keys and C.R. Iacovella.

Spatially Heterogeneous Dynamics in Supercooled Liquids and Related Materials

Research Area: Condensed Matter Physics, Fluid dynamics; Tools used: C/C++, Details: This project focuses on understanding the anomalous dynamical behavior exhibited by supercooled liquids and related materials near the glass transition. The project involves determining new algorithms for characterizing liquid dynamics in diverse systems. As a result of this project, we have demonstrated that liquid dynamics can be accurately modeled by hard-sphere granular systems.

An instantaneous bead configuration where the colour of the beads indicates the relative mobility on a timescale over which the mobile cluster size and string length are at a maximum. The 10% most mobile beads are red; note that they form clusters. Beads moving in strings have vectors superimposed to indicate their directional motion. Note that the dynamics are spatially heterogeneous. Image by A.S. Keys.

Glotzilla : A Molecular Simulation Library

Research Area: Condensed and Soft Matter Physics; Tools used: C/C++, Java, OpenGL. Details: In 2007, I began work on a molecular simulation C++ library called Glotzilla with the purpose of unifying all Glotzer group codes within a standard API. Glotzilla has succeeded in its initial goal of unifying Glotzer group code and has become of interest to the broader simulation community. Currently Glotzilla interfaces with the Etomica and LAMMPS simulation packages. Although the code is written in C++, SWIG-generated wrappers for Java, Python, and TCL are also available. (http://matforge.org/glotzer/)

Computer Skills:

• High-level languages: C, C++, Java.
• Operating Systems: Mac OS X, Linux.
• Mathematical Software Packages: MATLAB, Mathematica.

Personal Interests:

Ice-hockey, piano