Chris Balzer

About

I am a postdoctoral scholar at UC Santa Barbara in Professor Glenn Fredrickson's group. My research lives at the intersection of soft/condensed matter physics and computational science. At UCSB, I am developing theory and computational methods to study thermodynamics in reversibly associating polymer networks and in quantum fluids.

My expertise is in developing and implementing molecular models in soft matter physics. I use Monte Carlo, coarse-grained molecular dynamics, and field-theoretic simulations to study a broad array of thermodynamic (and some dynamic) phenomena.

MS & PhD, Chemical Engineering

2018 - 2023

Caltech

Thesis: "Polyelectrolytes Near Solid Surfaces"

MPhil, Chemical Engineering

2017 - 2018

University of Cambridge

Thesis: "Computational Analysis of Metal-Organic Frameworks for Separation of CO/N2"

BSE, Chemical Engineering

2014 - 2017

Arizona State University

Thesis: “A Model of Nanoparticle Dispersion in Electrospun Nanofibers”

Recent Work

For a full list of publications and conference presentations, check out my Google Scholar.

Electroresponse of Weak Polyelectrolyte Brushes
Entropic Origin of Ionic Interations in Polar Solvents
Explicit Polarization in Coarse-Grained Simulations of Ionomer Melts
Wetting behavior of polyelectrolyte complex coacervates on solid surfaces
Preferential Ion Adsorption in Blue Energy Applications
Wiz: A Web-Based Tool for Interactive Visualization of Big Data