DMSE Fall Seminar Series: Peter Hoffmann

Description

Peter Hoffmann, a professor of physics, the Dean of Arts and Sciences at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, and a science writer, will give a talk titled "The Physics of Life: Molecular Machines" for the Department of Materials Science and Engineering.

Abstract:

Living beings are based on nanoscale systems. Such systems have the unique ability to easily transform different types of energy into each other and to self-assemble into ordered structures. These astonishing feats are only possible because the nanoscale is dominated by thermal motion. Although living cells have taken advantage of the physics of the nanoscale for billions of years, technology is just beginning to exploit the very different rules governing this scale. In addition to examples from the mechanical behavior of nanoconfined liquids and the mechanics of single molecules, the talk will especially focus on the story of molecular machines, which connect physics to biology and illustrate how life is a game played at the nanoscale. Here, thermal noise meets molecular structure, and chaos becomes order.

Peter M. Hoffmann, a native of Germany, specializes in research in nanomechanics, single-molecule biophysics, nanconfined liquids, and the statistical behavior of nanoscale systems. His main research tools are atomic-force microscopy, neutron diffraction, and computer simulations. He has strong interests in science teaching practice and in the public understanding of science: His first popular science book, Life's Ratchet, on the physics of molecular machines in our cells, was published in 2012. It was long-listed for the Royal Society Winton prize, was a 2012 top ten physics book for the UK Institute of Physics, and a 2012 top five book according to the American Physical Society. He has also written for Nautilus, a literary science magazine. Hoffmann did his undergraduate studies in physics and mathematics in Germany, holds an MS degree in physics from Southern Illinois University, and received a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Johns Hopkins University. From 1999 to 2001, he was a research fellow at University of Oxford in the UK. Prior to joining Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 2022, he worked for 21 years at Wayne State University (WSU) in Detroit. At WSU, he was the creator and founding director of the Biomedical Physics Program from 2007 to 2012, associate dean for academic programs in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences from 2012 to 2015, and senior associate dean of research from 2015 to 2017.