Computational Materials Science

Speaker: Graeme E. Murch

Affiliation: University of Newcastle

Time: Monday 05/12/2011 from 14:00 to 15:00

Venue: Access Grid UWS. Presented from Parramatta (EB.1.32), accessible from Campbelltown (26.1.50) and Penrith (Y239).

Abstract: This talk will present research highlights from a cross-section of computational materials science projects at the Center for Mass and Thermal Transport in Engineering Materials at the University of Newcastle, Australia. Topics covered include:

• Diffusion at the nano-level: hollow nanospheres (formation and shrinkage), core-shell nanospheres (evolution), nanofoils (self-sustaining reactions), titanium dioxide nanotubes (electronic properties).


• Diffusion at the micro-level: grain boundary diffusion, diffusion with reaction.


• Diffusion at the macro-level: thermal transport in cellular metals.


• Computational techniques: ab initio, molecular dynamics, Kinetic and Lattice Monte Carlo, and finite element methods.

Biography:

Professor Graeme Murch graduated with an Honours Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry and physics and subsequently a PhD in thermodynamics and atomic diffusion of oxide nuclear fuels in 1973 from the Flinders University of South Australia. After a 2-year postdoc at the Australian Atomic Energy Commission, he worked for 10 years as a scientist at Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago. In 1985, he decided to return to Australia, first of all working for 2 years as the Principal Research Scientist at ICI-Australia research labs in Melbourne before joining the University of Newcastle where he holds a Personal Chair in Materials Science and Engineering and is the Joint-Director (with his wife Irina) of the University Center for Mass and Thermal Transport in Engineering Materials.

He is recognized as one of the pioneers of the area of computational materials science. He has authored 365 journal papers and book chapters (230 of them with his wife Irina), a monograph and has edited 20 books in various theory and computational areas associated with mass and thermal diffusion in a very wide range of materials. He is the Honorary Editor of Defect and Diffusion Forum and the Founder in 1984 and Editor-in-Chief of the series: Materials Science Forum and Solid State Phenomena.

He has been awarded two higher doctorates for the significance of his published contributions: a DSc from Flinders University and a DEng from the University of Newcastle. He has many research and teaching awards including the Einstein-Smoluchowski award that he shares with his wife Irina. He has organized 16 international symposia and for the past five years has also been a principal organizer of the annual Diffusion in Solids and Liquids Conference series that are held in various European cities.