Sergio Aragon

Education

B.A. (1971) Rice Univ. ,Chemistry
M.S. (1976) Stanford University, Physics
Ph.D. (1976) Stanford University, Physical Chemistry

Physical Chemistry

Study of macromolecules (natural or synthetic) in solution by dynamic laser light scattering, transient electric birefringence and Monte Carlo simulation techniques. Measurements are made of various transport properties of systems at or near equilibrium to obtain information on size, conformation, shape and flexibility. In addition, a major thrust of this research is to develop appropriate theoretical models relevant to the measurements mentioned above. The theory involves the statistical mechanics

Of molecular motion in fluids, including internal motions, and the electromagnetics of scattering processes in the Rayleigh-Debye and Mie regimes. Computer algebra techniques are used in the theoretical and computational aspects of these problems. Recent research includes the application of boundary element methods for the accurate hydrodynamic computation of transport properties of proteins and nucleic acids in solution with the stick boundary condition and small to intermediate size molecules with the slip boundary condition.