Ralph Scheicher

Research Interests: studying nano-bio systems as well as metal hydrides using methods from the field of computational materials science. Focusing on nanopore-based sequencing of DNA and proteins and on hydrogen storage. Also part of the Biophysics Network within the faculty.- For more, please see Ralph Scheicher's homepage.

Current position: Assistant Professor, 07/2010 – present, Division of Materials Theory, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Uppsala University

Previous positions: Gästforskare (Visiting Researcher), 10/2007 – 06/2010, Department of Physics and Materials Science, Uppsala University; Visiting Assistant Professor, 10/2005 – 09/2007, Department of Physics, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI, U.S.A.; Postdoc, 08/2004 – 09/2005; Teaching Assistant, 01/2000 – 05/2004, Department of Physics, State University of New York at Albany, Albany, NY, U.S.A.; Research Assistant, 10/1999 – 01/2000, jointly between KEK, High Energy Accelerator Research Organization, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, and RIKEN, Wako-shi, Japan

We focus on atomistic modelling of materials which can be broadly categorized into two subject areas: nanobiotechnology and amorphous solids. In the first area, the primary goal is to computationally design and explore nano-architectures that allow for new physical approaches to probe biological molecules. One of the main applications that motivates our studies is the possibility to use nanopores for sequencing DNA or studying proteins. - Regarding the second area, we are carrying out research on a challenging class of non-crystalline materials known as amorphous solids or glasses. Among other aspects, we are interested in how the thermal conductivity of such systems is affected if one introduces a long-range order ("phononic glasses") and how the diffusivity of hydrogen can be controlled by synthesizing specific compositions in the amorphous phase.