Research

• • Soft Matter Theory and Simulation:

    Phase Transitions, Nucleation, crystal growth, wetting and interfacial phenomena

    Molecular Dynamics and Monte Carlo simulations

    Thermodynamic Integration, Umbrella Sampling, Metadynamics, other free-energy based methods.

    Simulation of colloids and Liquid Crystals

    Computational Physics

• • Non-equilibrium Statistical Mechanics:

    Stochastic Processes in Physical Systems: Thermodynamics and Transport of Brownian Motors,  Stochastic Resonance, Noise Enhanced Stability, etc.

    Fluctuation theorems

    Theory and Simulations of Active Matter

    Polymer Translocation

Academic Positions

 2018-2023   UGCFRP Assistant Professor at Department of Physics, CUSAT, Kochi, Kerala

  2017-2018   Senior Postdoctoral Fellow at TIFR, Hyderabad, India

  2011-2016   Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of Soft Matter, Theoretical Physics II, Heinrich-Heine University, Duesseldorf, Germany

  2009-2011   DAAD-DLR Postdoctoral Fellow at Institute of Materials Physics in Space, German Aerospace Center, Cologne, Germany

  2009             Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Colorado at Boulder, USA

  2005-2008   Graduate Research Fellow, University of Alabama (UAB), USA

  2003-2005   Graduate Teaching Assistant, University of Oregon at Eugene, USA

Publications

         1. Transport and current reversal in an Active Brownian ratchet driven by a time-dependent self-propulsion velocity, Springer Proceedings of MSMICFP Conference, 2023 

       2. Noise-induced transport in a periodic square-well potential, manuscript submitted 2023

      3. Effective Diffusion and transport coherence in  presence of inhomogeneous temperature: Piecewise linear potential - Ronald Benjamin, arXiv: 2211.04421 (2022).

      4. Current and diffusion of overdamped active Brownian particles in a ratchet potential - Arjun SR and Ronald Benjamin, arXiv: 2211.04298 (2022).

      5. Effect of roughness on the transport of an overdamped Brownian particle - Prathyusha S Nair and Ronald Benjamin, arXiv: 2211.03750

      6. Free energy cost of forming an interface between a crystal and its frozen version - R. Benjamin and J. Horbach, Physical Review E, 92, 042408 (2015).

      7. Crystal growth kinetics in Lennard-Jones and Weeks-Chandler-Andersen systems along the solid-liquid coexistence line- R. Benjamin and J. Horbach, J. Che, Phys., 143, 014702 (2015).

      8. Crystal-liquid interfacial free energy of hard spheres via a thermodynamic integration scheme - R. Benjamin and J. Horbach, Physical Review E 91, 032410 (2015).

      9. Excess free energy of supercooled liquids at disordered walls -R. Benjamin and J. Horbach, Phys. Rev E Rapid Communication 90, 060101(R) (2014).

      10. Crystal-liquid interfacial free energy via Thermodynamic Integration - R. Benjamin and J. Horbach, J. Chem. Phys., 141, 044715 (2014).

      11. Lennard-Jones systems near solid walls: Computing interfacial free energies from molecular simulation methods - R. Benjamin and J. Horbach, J. Chem. Phys., 139 , 084705 (2013).

      12. Wall-liquid and wall-crystal interfacial free energies via thermodynamic integration: A molecular dynamics simulation study - Ronald Benjamin and J. Horbach, J. Chem. Phys., 137 044707 (2012).

      13. Inertial effects in Buettiker-Landauer Motor and Refrigerator at the Overdamped Limit - R. Benjamin and R. Kawai, Phys. Rev. E, 77, 051132 (2008)

      14. Stochastic energetics of a Brownian motor and refrigerator driven by non-uniform temperature - R. Benjamin, Int. J. Mod. Phys. B, 28, 140055 (2014).

      15. Nucleation barriers for the liquid-to-crystal transition in simple metals: Experiment vs. simulation - J. Bokeloh, G Wilde, RE Rozas, R Benjamin, J Horbach, The European Physical Journal Special Topics 223 (3), 511-526 (2014). 

      16. On and off membrane dynamics of the endoplasmic reticulum–Golgi tethering factor p115 in vivo-E - Brandon, T Szul, C Alvarez, R Grabski, R Benjamin, R Kawai, E Sztul, Molecular biology of the cell 17 (7), 2996-3008 (2006).

Manuscripts in Preparation

• 1. Efficiency and coherent transport in Brownian Motors 

  2. Thermophysical properties of the Theta-Phase of the compound Al2Cu.

Select Invited and Contributed Talks 

• 1. Crystal-liquid interfacial free energy via Thermodynamic Integration-Soft Matter Conference, Cambridge, UK

  2. Molecular simulation methods to compute interfacial free energies - DPG, 2014, Dresden

  3. Wall-liquid and wall-crystal interfacial free enrgies via Molecular Dynamics Simulation- SPP Meeting, Frankfurt, 2013

  4. Excess free energy of supercooled liquids near disordered walls- DPG 2013, Regensburg

  5. Interfacial free energies via non-equilibrium work and Gibbs-Cahn Integration- CompPhys12, Leipzig, 2012

  6. Interfacial free energies of Lennard-Jones particles near solid walls- CECAM Conference in Villars, Switzerland, 2013

  7. Efficiency optimization of a Brownian Motor driven by non-uniform temperature-DPG 2012, Berlin.

  8. Molecular Dynamics Simulation of a Buettiker-Landauer Motor and Refrigerator-APS March 2008 Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.

Honours and Awards

• American Physical Society (APS) Travel Award for making oral presentation at APS meetings

• Outstanding Graduate Student Award - UAB Physics Department

• GATE Physics Exam (A GRE-Physics type  exam to select students in India for PhD and Master's positions at the prestigious IIT's) - All India Rank 10 (99.46 percentile)

• Awarded PhD Fellowships at TIFR, Mumbai, India; University of Southern California, USA; Montana State University, Bozeman, USA; Ohio University, Athens, USA; Wesleyan University, Connecticut, USA at several times

• JEST Physics ( A GRE-Physics type  exam to select students in India for PhD positions at Select Research Institutes of India) - 1st Rank in Entire State (97.5 percentile)

• CSIR-UGC JRF & L (A GRE General-cum GRE Physics type exam to select students for PhD and teaching positions at various Indian Institutions) - Qualified 3 times

• Awarded Postdoctoral Fellowships at IISC, Bangalore, India; IMSC, Chennai, India; SNBNCBS Calcutta, India; Helsinki University of Technology, Finland, India; Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

• Awarded Graduate Student Scholarship by University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA

• Selected for UGCFRP Assistant Professorship by UGC, India 

• Selected as Assistant Professor (Senior, Level 12) at VIT (Vellore Institute of Technology) in 2017