معرفی
Alice Thorneywork is an Associate Professor of Physical Chemistry and Royal Society University Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, where she also serves as a Tutorial Fellow in Physical Chemistry at Lincoln College. Her research focuses on experimental soft matter and nanoscale systems, utilizing colloids, microfluidics, solid-state nanopores, and DNA nanotechnology to investigate fluctuations and transport in driven, out-of-equilibrium systems.
Her educational background includes an undergraduate degree in Chemistry and a DPhil in Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, both completed at Christ Church, University of Oxford. Her doctoral research under Prof. Roel Dullens examined colloidal model systems for two-dimensional hard sphere fluids, earning her the 2019 RSC Statistical Mechanics and Thermodynamics Group Young Scientist Award.
Thorneywork's research spans soft matter physics, nanotechnology, and non-equilibrium statistical mechanics, with emphasis on ionic transport in nanopores and microfluidic colloidal transport. She develops novel methods to decode noise signatures in nanofluidic systems and measures collective diffusion without particle trajectories, bridging single-particle to continuum-scale phenomena. Her work has direct applications in DNA sequencing, molecular sensing, and understanding biological transport mechanisms.
Recent publications reveal a strong trend toward methodological innovation in analyzing fluctuations and transport, particularly through power spectral density interpretation and the development of the 'Countoscope' technique. Her research consistently connects experimental observations with theoretical frameworks to uncover universal behavior in non-equilibrium systems across diverse length and time scales.
Notable scientific awards include:
- 2019 RSC Statistical Mechanics and Thermodynamics Group Young Scientist Award
- Oppenheimer Research Fellow (2018-2021)
- Royal Society University Research Fellowship
- ERC Starting Grant (now UKRI-funded)
Thorneywork leads an active research group funded by the Royal Society and UKRI, collaborating closely with theoretical and computational physicists. Her group employs holographic optical tweezers and DNA origami to engineer nanoscale transport processes, with recent projects focusing on polymer adsorption in nanopores and colloidal capture dynamics in microfluidic channels. She actively mentors PhD students and postdoctoral researchers in advanced experimental techniques.
Her laboratory within the Physical and Theoretical Chemistry Laboratory integrates colloidal model systems, microfluidics, and solid-state nanopores to probe fundamental physical phenomena. Current initiatives include functionalizing nanopores with DNA origami for precise transport control and applying mesoscale analysis methods to single-molecule biological experiments, positioning her group at the forefront of soft matter and nanoscale transport research.
