Professor Stephen Hyde

B.Sc. (UWA) Hons. (Monash); Ph.D. (Monash)
Barry Ninham Chair of Natural Science
ANU College of Science

Areas of expertise

  • Surfaces And Structural Properties Of Condensed Matter 020406
  • Soft Condensed Matter 020405

Researcher's projects

3D crystal nets, weavings and catenations and  via 2D hyperbolic geometry

Mesostructure of soft materials, particularly liquid crystals

Rubber-sheet origomu: Membrane packaing into tight volumes

String folding: Exploration of knots and links on genus-2 (and higher) surfaces

Current student projects

Suitable for: 3rd Year, PhB, Honours, PhD/Masters
A number of projects are available exploring threading, weaving, knotting, tangling... of nets using new topological and geometrric tools. The projects involve constructions (on the computer) using non-euclidean 2d geometry and topology.  We are keen to developnew measures of entanglement, using ideas from knot theory. We also plan to explore the effect of entanglement on elasticity of ideal materials, using (mainly) numerical modelling.

 

 

Suitable for: 3rd Year, PhB, Honours, PhD/Masters
Liquid crystals self-assemble to form a variety of designs of varying topological complexity. We are interested in multiply interwoven domain patterns, such as the double-diamond and gyroid structures found in lipid-water, copolymer mixtures and lipid-protein-water assemblies in vivo. A new class of“polyphile” liquid-crystal forming molecules have been made by us. We are exploring the possible self-assemblies these polyphiles can make in the presence of different solvents, with a major interest in making new tricontinuous patterns that we have found. Theoretical study of the relative stabilith of htese patterns is also planned.

Publications

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Updated:  19 April 2024 / Responsible Officer:  Director (Research Services Division) / Page Contact:  Researchers