prof ian ford
Research
Themes
- 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
- 544
- Room A6
- Physics Building
- UCL, Gower Street
- London
- WC1E 6BT
- ACAPRO
- 1996-01-01
- 1
- Professor of Physics
- MJ
- Dept of Physics & Astronomy
- MPS
- Faculty of Maths & Physical Sciences
- 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
- 262
- Research interests
The electromagnetic properties of nanoparticle colloids at radio and microwave frequencies
Investigation of MgO as a candidate for the primary nucleating dust species around M stars
Analytic and numerical calculations of the formation of a sulphuric acid aerosol in the upper troposphere
Kinetic stability of complex molecular clusters
Microscopic simulations of molecular cluster decay: Does the carrier gas affect evaporation?
Defining a molecular trimer
The dielectric properties of charged nanoparticle colloids at radio and microwave frequencies
Thermodynamics of attractive hard rods: a test of mean field density functional theory
Academic Background
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Award YearQualificationInstitution
-
1987DPhilUniversity of Oxford
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1984BA HonsUniversity 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.
- CMR
