Research News

La Huixia Lu defended his thesis directed by Jordi Martí Rabassa. on September 29, 2020 at the Nort Campus of the UPC, entitled "Exploring free-energy landscapes and microscopic interactions of selected small-molecules and proteins with cell membranes", the thesis describes the interactions at the atomic level between molecular systems of biological interest and pharmacist with the constitutive lipids of cell membranes.

Cristina Masoller, Pablo Amil, Donatus Halpaap and Jordi Tiana-Alsina are researchers from the UPC Physics Department at the Terrassa Campus. The team of researchers have detected audio signals at a distance, without listening to the emitter, and have converted them into images using laser light. The experiment, which was performed by recording the first bass chords of the song 'Another one bites the dust' by the British group 'Queen', has been published in the magazine 'Optics Express'. The method has been baptized with the name 'Best Pixel' and has had the collaboration of Italian scientists from the Università degli studi di Catania.

Miquel Marchena defended his thesis directed by Dr. Blas Echebarria on July 23, 2020. Titled "Modeling the pathological effects on intracellular calcium dynamics that leads to tone atrial fibrillation", the thesis presents a computational model related to atrial cell from which different pathological conditions that induce atrial fibrillation have been studied.

Joan Francesc Gilabert Navarro defended his thesis directed by Victor Guallar of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) the 22th of July in the North Campus. Titled "Estimation of binding free energies with Monte Carlo atomistic simulations and enhanced sampling", the thesis presents the development of a method to predict affinity in protein-ligand systems, with the aim of accelerating the development of new drugs

Hossameldin will present his thesis co-directed by Crina Cojocaru (Dept. of Physics) and Miguel Delgado prieto (Dept. of Electronic Engineering), on July 21 at the Terrassa Campus. Entitled "Hybrid non-destructive technique for volumetric defect analysis and reconstruction by remote laser induced ultrasound", the thesis is on the design, study and implementation of a non-destructive non-destructive testing (NDT) method. for the analysis of metallic objects containing internal defects or fractures. An opto-acoustic hybrid technique is proposed that combines ultrasound generated by laser impact as an exciter and ultrasound transducers as receivers.

Student Nura Mohammad Rabiu Ahmad virtually defended his thesis co-directed by Clara Prats and Daniel López on July 20. The thesis entitled “Multiapproach computational modeling of tuberculosis. Understanding its epidemiological dynamics for improving its control in Nigeria ", presents the application of epidemiological models to the particular case of Nigeria

Jordi Boronat, Director of the department of Physics, together with M. C. Gordillo from the University of Pablo de Olavide in Seville found evidences of of a supersolid quantum phase with hexatic correlations using quantum Monte Carlo methods. They have published these results in the prestigious Physical Review Letters