Tools

The core idea underlying research in the Lindberg group is to use foundational physical principles to predict the behavior of atoms and molecules. This provides a unique, bottom-up perspective of natural phenomena. So our group is working to predict new and interesting phenomena, to corroborate experimental measurements, and to reveal deficiencies in our understanding of the physical principles that govern nature. We primarily use a computational simulation technique called molecular dynamics (MD). In practice, MD is the application of Newton's 2nd law to predict the motion of atoms. This is similar to the calculations that are used to predict the motion of earth around the sun, but, instead of gravity, interactions for atomic systems are dominated by other atomic forces. While the mathematics employed for these simulations is relatively straight-forward for a few particles, it quickly becomes cumbersome when considering large numbers of atoms for long times, so we use tools like LAMMPS or Amber to efficiently perform our simulations on powerful, high-performance supercomputers. The Lindberg group is a great fit for anyone interested in using computers to understand the role of atoms and molecule in natural processes. Anyone with interests in chemistry, physics, biophysics, mathematics, or computer science should check out the Openings page.