John Nagle

Address:
Department of Physics
Carnegie Mellon University

Pittsburgh, PA 15213

Phone: (412); 268-6877
Fax: (412); 681-0648
Email: nagle@cmu.edu
Homepage: Visit

Background:

When and where you received your PhD
Yale University

Research:

Research is in the area of biological physics, with an interface with soft condensed matter physics. The particular systems under study are lipid bilayers, which form the structural basis of biomembranes. My studies employ x-ray and neutron scattering, theoretical modeling, statistical mechanical calculations and simulations, and measurements of specific heat and volume as a function of temperature. The first goal is to obtain reliable data for basic structural properties. The second goal is to elucidate the interactions between bilayers. For biologically relevant fluid phase lipid bilayers, both goals involve measuring nanoscale fluctuations, which we do using synchrotron x-rays. A longer-range goal is to understand how the molecular interactions bring about the structure and the fluctuations.