Research interests
Welcome to the Computational Materials Science Group at McGill. Research in the group lies at the interface of condensed matter physics and materials science. It combines high-performance computing with non-equilibrium thermodynamics, statistical mechanics and experiments to understand the fundamental origins of microstructure evolution in materials processes. These include systems undergoing crystallization from a melt or amorphous phases, multi-phase solidification, particle precipitation, grain growth kinetics and reaction-diffusion processes materials.
These systems serve as paradigms for understanding pattern formation in non-equilibrium phase transformations, and have applications to real-world processes. Projects in our group involve the development of theories and computational models that allow a multi-scale representation of materials from the nanoscale to the mesoscale where the emergent properties of materials typically arise.
This connection of length scales is achieved by course-graining microscopic theories to yield mesoscale continuum models or sharp-interface models. Models thus developed can also find use in materials engineering applications. Most of the phenomena we study have relevance to industrial materials processing, and some of my research is sponsored by industry.
Prospective graduate students:
If you are interested in doing research at the forefront of advanced computing, materials physics and data science, I encourage you to consider studies in my computational materials science research group, a vibrant group of students working in a safe and inclusive environment at McGill. Please contact me directly via email to the next available openings for graduate studies in my research group or if you wish to visit and meet with my students and discuss my research and reseach environment. I welcome and encourage applications from underrepresented groups.
Best wishes, Nikolas Provatas