Xikai Jiang

Electrostatic interaction in heterogeneous dielectric materials has important application in biological systems (e.g., charged macromolecules and synthetic structures, such as self-assembled colloidal dispersions). Solving the associated electrostatic problem is challenging and necessitates advanced numerical techniques for efficient and accurate description of dielectric polarization, distribution of induced charges, and the forces acting on materials of interests. With de Pablo Group, Xikai is developing the Continuum-Particle Simulation Software (COPSS) that houses the parallel O(N) Poisson solver to address the above challenge. COPSS can be coupled with molecular and continuum simulations to model materials influenced by electrostatic interactions at different length- and time-scales using high-performance computers. Xikai and the de Pablo Group also work on utilizing the tools built to understand a variety of physical phenomena in which electrostatic polarization plays an important role.