ARTIFICIAL MUSCLE RESEARCH INSTITUTE

and

SAMPE


 

Announce A Seminar Presented by

Pierre-Gilles de Gennes
Nobel Laureate in Physics, Paris, France

Subject: Artificial Muscles
Date and Location of Seminar:
August 30, 1999,  7:30PM-10:00PM,
 MTTC, 800 Bradbury Drive in the UNM South Research Park
 
 



.    ABSTRACT

This talk will discuss the aims and the weak points of soft mechanical systems: slow responses and fragility. One partial solution based on block copolymers is currently built up by P. Auroy and will be described.
 


The Speaker: Pierre-Gilles de Gennes

P.G. de Gennes was born in Paris (France) in 1932. He majored from the Ecole Normale Supérieuse in 1955. From 1955 to1959, he was a research engineer at the Atomic Energy Center (Saclay), working mainly on neutron scattering and magnetism, with advice From A. Abragam and J. Friedel (Ph.D. 1957). During 1959 he was a postdoctoral visitor with C. Kittel at Berkeley, and then served for 27 months in the French Navy. In 1961, he became assistant professor in Orsay and soon started the Orsay group on supraconductors. Later (1968), he switched to liquid crystals. In 1971, he became Professor at the Collège
de France, and was a participant of STRASACOL (a joint action of Strasbourg, Saclay and Collège de France) on polymer physics.

From 1980, he became interested in interfacial problems: the dynamics of wetting and adhesion. More recently, he has worked on granular materials. As of January 1st 1999, he has produced 462 publications.

P.G. de Gennes has received the Holweck Prize (from the joint French and British Physical Society), the Ampère prize (French Academy of Science), the gold medal from the French CNRS, the Matteuci Medal (Italian Academy), the Harvey prize (Israel), the Wolf Prize (Israel), the Lorentz Medal (Dutch Academy of Arts and Sciences), the Physics Nobel Prize (Stockholm), the Onsager medal (Trondheim), the J. Stefan medal (Ljubljana) and polymer awards from both APS and ACS.

He is a member of the French Academy of Sciences, the Dutch Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Sciences (U.S.A.).
 


Schedule of Events

This is a no host reception and cash bar. We will be collecting the cost of drinks, snacks, and deserts by selling coupons at the door of the MTTC entrance.
 
 
 

Time Event
07:30 PM Social Mix 
08:00 PM Lecture: Pierre-Gilles deGennes 
09:00 PM Reception



Directions:

The MTTC is located at 800 Bradbury Drive in the UNM South Research Park. It is the building
immediately behind (West) of 801 University Blvd SE. There is a parking garage for your use immediately West of the MTTC building.

Cost/Contact/Reservations

Because we must make arrangements for catering, we need to hear from you no later than Noon on Friday, August 27th. We expect a huge crowd for this event, so please make your reservations early.

Reservations: Mohsen Shahinpoor, 277-3096, Matt Donnelly, 845-9746 or Armand G. Winfield, 277-3947 This will be a purely technical program. It will still be interesting and educational for all adults. Please feel free to bring along spouses, friends, and mature sons and daughters.
 


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