In this project, the aim is to understand quantitatively the molecular elasticity of biopolymers with potential engineering applications. The first example is Spider Dragline Silk, which may be several times stronger than steel (after normalizing the density). The work involves computational and theoretical analyses of the molecular structure of the biopolymer system. The work involves some coding, but is mostly theory development. The required background is Basic ChE or similar background sound college level Mathematics, with a good understanding in Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics. Background in Polymers would be good, but is not required.

(Theoretical and Computational)