prof ian ford

Profile Image

Research
Themes

Contacts
  • Prof
  • Ian
  • John
  • Ford
  • Prof Ian Ford
  • Tel: 02076797136
  • Ex: 37136
  • Fax: 02076797145
  • i.ford@ucl.ac.uk
  • Website
  • https://iris.ucl.ac.uk/iris/extResource/image/01/IJFOR04
  • 1996-01-01
Address
  • 544
  • Room A6
  • Physics Building
  • UCL, Gower Street
  • London
  • WC1E 6BT
Appointment
  • ACAPRO
  • 1996-01-01
  • 1
  • Professor of Physics
  • MJ
  • Dept of Physics & Astronomy
  • MPS
  • Faculty of Maths & Physical Sciences
Joined UCL
  • 1996-01-01

Research Summary

My research is on theoretical aspects of soft condensed matter, including aerosol, colloid and materials and biological physics. I am particularly interested in the nucleation of a phase transition, such as condensation or freezing, and in nonequilibrium entropy-producing processes in general. I have also worked in areas as diverse as quark physics, laser-atom interactions, friction and wear, atmospheric physics and environmental pollution, deformation and fracture of materials, and problems in nuclear reactor design.

Soft condensed matter
Nucleation phenomena
Aerosol science
Biomolecular mechanics
Entropy production
Small system kinetic processes
Fluctuation theorems

Research Activities
  • 262
  • Research interests

Academic Background

  • Award Year
    Qualification
     
    Institution
  • 1987
    DPhil
    Doctor of Philosophy
    University of Oxford
  • 1984
    BA Hons
    Bachelor of Arts (Honours)
    University of Cambridge

Biography

I graduated from Cambridge University in 1984 with a BA in Physics and Theoretical Physics, and went on to complete a DPhil in 1987 at Oxford University on the theory of elementary particles. I then took a job in the Theoretical Physics Division at the Harwell Laboratory of the UK Atomic Energy Authority. In 1993-5 I was attached to the Department of Materials at Oxford University as a part-time Royal Society Industrial Fellow. I left Harwell at the end of 1995 to join the Condensed Matter and Materials Physics group of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at UCL. I became a Reader in Physics in 2003 and a Professor in 2007.

Additional Information
  • CMR