July 11, 2006
NSF grant funds granular physics research at Clark University
Worcester, Mass. - Why are Brazil nuts found near the top of a can of mixed nuts? What causes an avalanche of rocks or snow? These systems are a collection of grains and examples of granular matter. The behavior of a single grain is easily understood, but the properties of a collection of grains are very complex. A new, $327,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) will support ground-breaking research at Clark University into the secrets of granular physics.
The NSF award, effective from June until May 2009, will support the research project titled "Statistical and Dynamical Properties of Spherical and Non-Spherical Granular Materials," which will comprise a series of experiments to measure properties of particles subjected to vibrations. Granular matter is important in many engineering processes and geological phenomena, and research already under way at Clark has furthered understanding of its structure and dynamics.
Principal investigator of the grant is Arshad A. Kudrolli, associate professor of physics. He will oversee added personnel, including graduate and undergraduate researchers, equipment upgrades and replacement, materials and travel.
Christopher P. Landee, Chair of Clark's Department of Physics, says "Professor Kudrolli has been studying the behavior of granular media with support of the NSF since he arrived at Clark and has become one of young leaders in this field. The current grant will enable him to examine the changes in behavior due to more complex shapes of the grains, shapes more commonly found in nature."
The team's ongoing work will further education in the field of granular physics -- at Clark and among other institutions. Fruitful collaborations have led to theoretical and computational analysis of Clark experiments. Kudrolli's work has been covered by Nature Physics, New Scientist Magazine, National Geographic, CNN, Popular Science Magazine, the Boston Globe, and other media. Kudrolli also shares his research with high school students and at other colleges, making a "Physics in a sandbox" presentation.
Kudrolli received a degree in engineering physics from the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay in 1990 and a Ph.D. in physics from Northeastern University in 1995. He has been at Clark since 1997. He has been named an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow by the Sloan Foundation. Besides the NSF, his research is funded by the Department of Energy, Petroleum Research Fund, and Research Corporation. He also holds a visiting position in the Department of Mathematics at MIT.
To learn more about Kudrolli's research at Clark, visit online: http://physics.clarku.edu/~akudrolli/nls.html.