Ciprian Pruteanu

Biography

I am a physicist working mainly on high pressure fluids and fluid mixtures, with the main goal being to relate their atomic structure to the properties and behaviour of the bulk, macroscopic system. To this end I employ a wide range of techniques, from quantitative imaging, Raman spectroscopy inside Diamond Anvil Cells and neutron diffraction, to classical and ab initio molecular dynamics. An overarching goal of my research is  to blend coherently theoretical and experimental methods to gain a holistic and accurate picture of disordered systems, from the atomic level to the macrosopic level.

A particular focus of my research is on hydrophobicity and what are the exact phyisical ingredients to produce or inhibit it. I am involved in efforts to produce/refit classical atomic forcefields to become transferrable and applicable to high pressure conditions, in the hope of them serving as a cheap screening tool for exotic behaviour.

I have earned both my BSc and PhD at the University of Edinburgh. After my PhD, I held a 2-year EPSRC Doctoral Prize Fellowship in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at University College London (UCL), followed by a 1.5-year Research Fellow position in the Deparment of Earth Sciences at UCL, before returning to Edinburgh.

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