RCC Panel on Engineering

Date: 

Wednesday, March 9, 2016, 3:00pm

Location: 

RCC Main Conference Room, 26 Trowbridge St. Cambridge, MA.

RCC is pleased to announce these two talks by RCC Fellows on Engineering.     

  • Theoretical methods for the dynamics of polymeric liquids, Jorge Ramírez García, Visiting Fellow at Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

Abstract: The dynamical response of polymers has important consequences in many industrial applications. Most polymeric materials are processed in the melt state or in solution, and the rheological response of polymer fluids can have a big effect on the processing conditions and on the properties of final products.

Polymer dynamics has evolved during the last six decades into a beautiful, rich and active field of research. New theories and modifications of existing models appear continuously in the literature, competing to show off which one can fit, predict or make sense of different sets of experimental data. In addition to rheology, the dynamics of polymer chains can be probed experimentally by means of dielectric spectroscopy, NMR, diffusion, light scattering experiments, etc., as well as computer simulations, which are playing an increasingly important role in the field.

In this talk, I give a short review of the most important facts regarding the dynamics of entangled polymer fluids, from a historical point of view, and describe some important challenges that polymer scientists will need to solve in the future.

After the talk, Jorge Ramírez will give a short review of the related topics that will be presented in the forthcoming American Physical Society meeting in Baltimore, in March 2016.

Abstract: Which are the aesthetic implications of dealing with sustainability in architecture? Can we speak about a kind of ‘aesthetics of energy’? The lecture will present the fruitful intersections of history and technique in architecture, a subject still insufficiently explored and interpreted. The starting point of the approach is the realization that the technical developments in architecture – especially the ones concerning architecture – should not only be addressed with specialized tools. They should be regarded from a comprehensive, broad, and multidisciplinary angle, one that can take stock of the complex dimensions of each material culture.

Sponsor(s): Real Colegio Complutense.

Contact(s): Kim Conant.