REPORT ON THE DREXEL INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL AWARD
Name: Brigita Urbanc
Title: Associate Professor
Affiliation: Department of Physics, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA
Travel Destination: Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bangalore, India
Duration: 17–20 December, 2009
Purpose: To deliver an invited talk entitled “Discrete molecular dynamics simulations of amyloid
β -protein assembly” at the conference Multiscale Modeling and Simulations of Hard and Soft
Materials
Conference Organizers: Umesh Waghmare (JNCASR), Sunil Kumar (Indian Institute of Technology, Madras), & Srikanth Sastry (JNCASR)
Narrative: Phenomena in many systems of interest in material science, soft condensed matter
physics and biology require analysis of processes that span a wide range of time and length scales,
from atomic level details of bonding and corresponding dynamics to morphologies emerging at
meso or macroscopic scales. Analysis, modeling and simulations if such phenomena are quite
challenging, but essential for deeper understanding and development of predictive theories. The
conference brought together people working on the development of multiscale simulation methods
across these disciplines. The four–day conference I attended gave exposure to current research
of active groups in the field, including (i) general strategies and formalism for coarse graining;
(ii) hybrid quantum–classical modeling; (iii) coarse grained modeling of soft and bio-molecular
systems; and (iv) multiscale modeling of solids and surface phenomena. The conference was
preceded by a ten–day school that included pedagogic lectures and hands–on sessions aimed at
post–graduate students and junior researchers.
FIG. 1: Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR, http://www.jncasr.ac.in/)
is a multidisciplinary research institute situated in
Jakkur, a locality north of Bangalore, India. It is
relatively young yet well–known around the Globe.
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FIG. 2: From left to right: Umesh Waghmare (JNCASR), Sunil Kumar (Indian Institute of Technology,
Madras), Brigita Urbanc (Drexel University), Srikanth Sastry (JNCASR) & Sergey V. Buldyrev (Yeshiva
University).
Significance to Drexel University: This invitation provided an opportunity to expose the research
of my lab at the Physics Department to a broad international community. The Jawaharlal Nehru
Center for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) is a well-known multidisciplinary research
institute situated in Jakkur, north of Bangalore with ∼40 faculty members and over 150 graduate students working on interdisciplines involving chemistry, physics, biology, and engineering.
Through discussion and socializing I established the means for a future collaboration with people
from this institution.
Cultural Expansion: The trip provided an opportunity to explore the scientific culture and
lifestyle in Bangalore and neighborhood and upon return sharing this new cultural experience
with collaborators, friends, and family.
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FIG. 3: Pictures of the campus with one of the conference participants, Michael Falk (Johns Hopkins
University), talking a break from the talks.
FIG. 4: More pictures of the campus.
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