Alex Travesset

Assistant Professor - Iowa State University
Associate Physicist - Ames Laboratory - USDOE

A503 Zaffarano Hall
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 50011-3020

Phone: (515) 294-0808
Fax: (515) 294-6027
trvsst@ameslab.gov

Education

    PhD—Universität de Barcelona, 1997

Honors and Awards

  • 2008 NSF Career Award
  • 2008 Outstanding DOE mentor award
  • Premi extraordinary de Doctorat, given to the best Ph.D. at the University of Barcelona

Professional Appointments

  • 2008-present Associate Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Iowa State University
  • 2002-2008 Assistant Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Iowa State University
  • 2002-Present Associate Scientist, Ames Laboratory BCB (Bioinformatics and Computational Biology), Iowa State University
  • 2000-02 Research Assistant, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • 1997-00 Research Associate, Syracuse University, Physics Department

Research Interests

    Soft condensed matter, Biophysics

Selected Publications

  • "Extracting the pair distribution function of liquids and liquid-vapor surfaces by grazing inidence x-ray diffraction mode" D. Vaknin, W. Bu and A. Travesset, J. Chem. Phys., 129, 044504 (2008).
  • "Molecular Dynamics of Ionic Transport and Electrokinetic Effects in Realistic Silica Channels" C.D. Lorenz, P.A. Crozier, J.A. Anderson and A. Travesset, J. Phys. Chem. C, 112, 10222 (2008).
  • "Nanoparticle Ordering via Functionalized Block Copolymers in Solution" R. Sknepnek, J.A. Anderson, M.H. Lamm, J. Schmalian and A. Travesset, ACS Nano, 2, 1259 (2008).
  • "Self-assembled ordered polymer nanocomposites directed by attractive particles" C.D. Knorowski, J.A. Anderson and A. Travesset, J. Chem. Phys., 128, 164903 (2008).
  • "Micellar Crystals in Solution from Molecular Dynamics Simulations" J.A. Anderson, C.D. Lorenz and A. Travesset, J. Chem. Phys., 128, 184906 (2008).
  • "General purpose molecular dynamics simulations fully implemented on graphics processing units" J.A. Anderson, C.D. Lorenz and A. Travesset, J. Comput. Science, 227, 5342 (2008).
  • "Hydrogen Bonding and the Binding of Polybasic Residues with Negatively Charged Mixed Lipid Monolayers" C.D. Lorenz , J. Faraudo and A. Travesset, Langmuir, 24, 1654 (2008).
  • "Charge inversion of divalent ionic solutions in silica channels" C.D. Lorenz and A. Travesset, Phys. Rev. E, 75, 061202 (2007).
  • "Phosphatidic Acid Domains in Membranes: effect of Divalent Counterions" J. Faraudo and A. Travesset, Biophys. J., 92, 2806 (2007).
  • "Electrostatics of Phosphatidic Acid Monolayers: Insights from Computer Simulations" J. Faraudo and A. Travesset, Coll. Surf. A, 300, 287 (2007).
  • "Dynamics and instabilities of defects in two-dimensional crystals on curved backgrounds" M. Bowick, H. Shin, and A. Travesset, Phys. Rev. E, 75, 21404 (2007).
  • "Ordering by Collapse: Formation of bilayer and trilayer crystals by folding Langmuir monolayers" D. Vaknin, W. Bu, S.K. Satija and A. Travesset, Langmuir, 23, 1888 (2007).
  • "The many origins of charge inversion in electrolyte solutions: effects of discrete interfacial charges" J. Faraudo and A. Travesset, J. Phys. Chem. C, 111, 987 (2007).
  • "Atomistic Simulations of Langmuir Monolayer Collapse" C.D. Lorenz and A. Travesset, Langmuir, 22, 10016 (2006).
  • "Effect of dipolar moments in domain sizes of lipid bilayers and monolayers" A. Travesset, J. Chem. Phys. 125 (8), 084905 (2006).
  • "Charge inversion at minute electrolyte concentrations", J. Pitler, W. Bu, D. Vaknin, A. Travesset, D.J. McGillivray, and M. Loesche, Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 46102 (2006).
  • "Coarse-Grained Simulations of Gels of Nonionic Multiblock Copolymers with Hydrophobic Groups", J. Anderson and A. Travesset, Macromolecules 39, 5143 (2006).
  • "How Accurate Is Poisson-Boltzmann Theory for Monovalent Ions near Highly Charged Interfaces", W. Bu, D. Vaknin, and A. Travesset, Langmuir 22, 5673 (2006).
  • "Bjerrum Pairing Correlations at Charged Interfaces", A. Travesset and D. Vaknin, Europhys. Lett. 74, 181 (2006).
  • "Crystalline Particle Packings on a Sphere with Long Range Power Law Potentials", M. Bowick, A. Cacciuto, D. Nelson, and A. Travesset, Phys. Rev. B 73, 24115 (2006).
  • "Monovalent counterion distribution at highly charged interfaces: Proton transfer and Poisson-Boltzmann theory" D. Vaknin, W. Bu, and A. Travesset, Phys. Rev. E 72, 60501 (2005).
  • "Salty Solutions Near a Charged Modulated Interface" A. Travesset, Eur. Phys. J E 17, 435 (2005).
  • "Coarse-Grained Molecular Dynamics Simulations of the Self-Assembly of Pentablock Copolymers into Micelles" Y. Chushak and A. Travesset, J. Chem. Phys. 123, 234905 (2005).
  • "Solid domains in lipid vesicles and scars" Y. Chushak and A. Travesset, Europhys. Lett. 72, 767 (2005).
  • "The Ground State of a Large Number of Particles on a Frozen Topography" A. Travesset, Phys. Rev. E 72, 36110 (2005).
  • "Induced Crystallization of Polyelectrolyte-Surfactant Complexes at the Gas-Water Interface" D. Vaknin, S. Dahlke, A. Travesset, G. Nizri, and S. Magdassi, Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 218302 (2004).
  • "Curvature-Induced Defect Unbinding in Toroidal vesicles" M. Bowick, D.R. Nelson, and A. Travesset, Phys. Rev. E 69, 41102 (2004).
  • "Grain Boundary Scars and Spherical Crystallography" A.R. Bausch, M. Bowick, A. Cacciuto, A. Dinsmore, M. Hsu, D.R. Nelson, M. Nikolaides, A. Travesset, and D. Weitz,Science 299, 1716 (2003).