Robert Pelcovits
Professor:
Physics
Phone: +1 401 863 1432
Phone 2: +1 401 863 1435
Robert_Pelcovits@Brown.EDU
Bob Pelcovits does research on theoretical liquid crystal physics, including numerical simulations and visualization.
Biography
Professor Pelcovits joined the Brown Physics Department in 1979. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, he received his Ph. D. from Harvard University in 1978. He has done postdoctoral research at the University of Illinois and Brookhaven National Laboratory. He was an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow and a recipient of the Bergmann Memorial Award from the U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation. He has been a visiting professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Tel Aviv University and Brandeis University. He was named a Royce Family Professor of Teaching Excellence at Brown in 2008 for a three-year term.
Interests
My research includes both analytical and numerical work, and involves long-term collaborations with experimentalists at Brown (Greg Crawford in Engineering) and Brandeis (Zvonomir Dogic and Robert Meyer). My numerical work, comprising simulations of phenomenological models of liquid crystals, has also had a significant visualization component involving a very fruitful collaboration with David Laidlaw of Brown's Computer Science Department.
I study a wide range of liquid crystal systems. I am interested in fundamental physical questions such as the properties of topological defects and issues of technological importance in display technology. Some of my work in collaboration with Tom Powers in Brown's Division of Engineering, and Bob Meyer and Zvonomir Dogic at Brandeis involves studying problems in biological physics which overlap with liquid crystal phenomena.
Degrees
BA, MS 1974, U. of Penn.; PhD, 1978, Harvard
Awards
1977-78 IBM Predoctoral Fellow
1982-83 Bergmann Memorial Award for Young Scientists, U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation
1983 Einstein Fellow, Einstein Center for Theoretical Physics, Weizmann Institute of Science
1983-87 Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow
1999 Philip J. Bray Award for Teaching Excellence in the Physical Sciences
2008-11 Royce Family Professor of Teaching Excellence
Affiliations
Member, American Physical Society
Teaching
I have taught and continue to teach a wide variety of physics courses from introductory pre-med physics to advanced statistical mechanics for graduate students.
Funded Research
Petroleum Research Fund, "Dynamic Anchoring of Liquid Crystals at Fluid Interfaces", (Greg Crawford, co-PI), September 1, 2008-August 31, 2010
National Science Foundation, MRSEC subaward, "Constraints and Frustration in Nano-Structured and Bio-Molecular Materials", (with multiple PI's at Brandeis University), September 1, 2008-August 31, 2014
