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Royal Society Research Fellow, Cavendish Laboratory, Department of Physics, University of Cambridge
Dr Sebastian Ahnert is a Research Fellow in the Theory of Condensed Matter (TCM) research group within the Cavendish Laboratory. His research covers many topics, which lie at the interface between theoretical physics and biology.
Theoretical Condensed Matter physics involves building models of physical processes, often driven by experimental data, generalising the solutions of those models to make experimental predictions, and transferring the concepts gained into other areas of research. Theory plays an important role in understanding known phenomena and in predicting new ones.
Dr Ahnert’s most recent research in this area has been on molecular self-assembly; where his research team has used a versatile lattice model of self-assembly, and applied this approach to more general structures such as molecules and protein complexes. In further work they have showed that genetic algorithms can be used in conjunction with their lattice model to answer questions about the emergence of symmetry and modularity in biological evolution.
His previous research interests have included quantum measurement and molecular dynamics. Dr Ahnert is the Director of Studies in Natural Science at King’s College, University of Cambridge.
