General Area: Experimental soft condensed matter physics.

Specific Interests: Polymer Physics & Engineering and Soft-Condensed Matter Systems: Physical properties and dynamics of polymer molecules, glass transition, structural relaxation, and viscoelastic deformations. Designing advanced materials, and tuning of material properties at the nanoscale through blends and composites. How are the dynamics and physical properties of polymer molecules affected by interactions between different components within a system? Understanding surface and interfacial interactions at the nanoscale in thin films, membranes, coatings, multilayer films, nanocomposites, nanostructured blends, and foams.

Polymers are ubiquitous, encompassing everything from DNA and proteins, to gels, rubbers and plastics. Excluding biological polymers used in pharmaceutical and medical applications, polymers are a multi-billion dollar industry. Even though polymers are often used for such mundane things as plastic shopping bags and car tires, current research is focused on designing advanced materials for use in specialty applications such as medical implants or as dielectric layers in the microelectronics industry. Many of these advanced materials take advantage of new phenomena that occur when interactions at the nanoscale begin to dominate.

Website: www.physics.emory.edu/faculty/roth/