Robert M. Ziff

Biography

  Education: The Rockefeller University PhD Statistical Physics ’76 University of California at Los Angeles BS Physics ’71 Society Memberships Physical Review E, Associate Editor, 2002 – 2007 Physical Review E, Editorial Board, 1993-1995, 1996-1998 Fractals, Editorial Board, 1993-2002 Philosophical Magazine Letters B, Editorial Board, 1995-2007 Positions Held at U-M Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering (1997-Present) Professor, Macromolecular Science and Engineering Department Member, Michigan Center for Theoretical Physics, (2001-Present) Member, Center for the Study of Complex Systems, (2009-Present) Associate Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering (1988-1997) Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering (1982-1988) Positions Held Elsewhere Postdoctoral Fellow, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Chemistry (1978-1982) Postdoctoral Fellow, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Chemistry (1978-1982) Postdoctoral Fellow, Low Temperature Physics Laboratory, Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (1976-1978) Courses Taught ChE 330 – Thermodynamics II ChE 460 – Unit Operations Lab ChE 466 – Process Dynamics and Control ChE 510 – Mathematical Methods in Chemical Engineering ChE 527 – Fluids ChE 538 – Statistical and Irreversible Thermodynamics ChE 595 – Chemical Engineering Research Survey ChE 696 – Percolation and Fractals

Research Interest

Included in his research history are research in the area of cryogenics (especially in liquid helium) at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and the study of statistical mechanics of gas and polymer systems while in the mechanical engineering and chemistry departments at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. This is a representation of a percolation cluster from a simulation program that Dr. Ziff helped develop. This program uses fractals and statistical fractal quantities to simulate and study such processes as flow of fluid through porous rock, gelation, the spread of epidemics, and chemical reactions. Studies using this program were featured in the Jul/Aug 1994 issue of Computers in Physics.