Research Faculty

Experimental Condensed Matter Physics

Professor John R. deBruyn Dr. John R. deBruyn
Research Areas: I use light scattering, flow visualization, and rheological techniques to study the flow and microscopic structure of complex fluids such as polymers, gels, and foams. I also do experiments on granular materials, and I study the effects of proteins on the growth of bone-related minerals using light scattering.
Research web site: http://www.physics.uwo.ca/~debruyn/overview.shtml
Email: debruyn [at] uwo.ca
Professor Giovanni Fanchini Dr. Giovanni Fanchini
Research Areas: My research activity encompasses the preparation of carbon-based and organic nanomaterials and their use for the fabrication of optical and electronic devices such as thin film transistors and solar cells.

Specific characterization and modeling activities focus on the spectroscopic investigation of electronic devices during operation.
Research web site: http://physics.uwo.ca/~gfanchin
Email: gfanchin [at] uwo.ca
Professor Lyudmila Goncharova Dr. Lyudmila Goncharova
Research Areas: Our research focus is the investigation and modification of surfaces of materials which have not been extensively investigated with surface science and ion scattering techniques.
Research web site: http://www.physics.uwo.ca/~lgonchar/research/interests/index.shtml
Email: lgonchar [at] uwo.ca
Professor Jeff Hutter Dr. Jeffrey L. Hutter
Research Areas: My research focuses on soft materials and nanomaterials, including hydrogels, biominerals, and nanowires. In order to understand the structure and mechanical properties of these materials, I employ atomic force microscopy, video microscopy, small-angle neutron scattering, and light scattering.
Research web site: http://www.physics.uwo.ca/~hutter/research.shtml
Email: jhutter [at] uwo.ca
Dr. Leo Lau Dr. Leo Lau
Research Areas: Development of novel sensors and integrated functional nano-devices for medical and computational research in surface science.
Research web site: http://www.uwo.ca/ssw/staff/lau.html
Email: llau22 [at] uwo.ca
Professor Willy Lennard Dr. William Lennard
Research Areas: Stopping, scattering and excitation phenomena for charged particles traversing condensed media. Development of novel ion beam analysis techniques using elastic scattering.
Research web site: http://publish.uwo.ca/~wlennard/research.htm
Email: wlennard [at] uwo.ca
Professor Silvia Mittler Dr. Silvia Mittler
Research Areas: The Laboratory for Photonics of Surfaces and Interfaces concentrates on evanescent optical techniques (waveguides, surface plasmon resonances and Au nanoparticles) for the development of (bio)chemical sensors. Surface functionalization technology is a necessary tool here too. They also use their optical technology for evanescent microscopy: scattering and fluorescence for cell-substratum interaction studies. Biomineralization on templating surfaces is a new topic.
Research web site: http://www.physics.uwo.ca/~smittler/overview.html
Email: smittler [at] uwo.ca
Professor Peter Simpson Dr. Peter Simpson
Research Areas: The Positron Beam Laboratory at Western uses beams of positrons (the anti-particle of the electron) as a probe to study the structure of solids, especially electronic materials.
Research web site: http://www.physics.uwo.ca/~psimpson
Email: psimpson [at] uwo.ca