Erin McGarrity, Ph. D.


Image of MeI'm currently a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at Michigan State University.

Research Interests

I am interested in the fields of computational materials science, parallel computation and scientific visualization.  I'm currently using a fluids density functional theory (DFT) to study the phase behavior of the self-assembly of thin-film polymer/nanoparticle composites. In particular, I am trying to understand the effects of entropy and dispersion forces at the mesoscopic scale in these blends. In addition, I am beginning work on polymer/nanoparticle blends in the bulk using the polymer reference interaction site model (PRISM). The goal of this work is to understand the mechanisms behind the dispersion of the nanoparticles in polymer melts.



E-mail: mcgarrit@egr.msu.edu

Teaching

I'm currently co-teaching an international course on computational physics with Phil Duxbury (MSU Physics), Jos Thijssen (TU Delft, Netherlands) and Chris Verzijl (TU Delft, Netherlands).  In this course the students work with partners at TU Delft in the Netherlands to learn computational techniques for solving classical and quantum physics problems. 

Selected Publications 

E. S. McGarrity, P. M. Duxbury, A. L. Frischknecht, M. E. Mackay,“Calculation of Entropic Terms Governing Nanoparticle Self-assembly in Polymer Films,” Submitted to Macromolecules, April 2008.

E. S. McGarrity, A. L. Frischknecht, M. E. Mackay, “Phase Behavior of Polymer/Nanoparticle Blends Near a Substrate,” J. Chem. Phys. 128(15), 154904, 2008.

E. S. McGarrity, A. L. Frischknecht, L. J. D. Frink, M. E. Mackay, “Surface-Induced First-Order Transition in Athermal Polymer-Nanoparticle Blends,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 238302, 2007.

E. S. McGarrity, K. S. McGarrity, P. M. Duxbury, B. W. Reed, E. A. Holm, “Effects of Grain Boundary Constraint on Properties of Polycrystalline Materials,” Modelling Simul. Mater. Sci. Eng. 15(4), S353-S360, 2007.

P. M. Duxbury, E. S. McGarrity, E. A. Holm, “Critical Manifolds in Non-linear Response of Complex Materials,” Mechanics of Materials 38(8-10), Aug-Oct 2006.

E. S. McGarrity, P. M. Duxbury, E. A. Holm, “Statistical Physics of Grain-boundary Engineering,” Phys. Rev. E.,  71(1), 2005.

E. S. McGarrity, “Statistical Physics of Grain-boundary Engineering,” Ph.D. Thesis,  Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, December 2005.

E. A. Holm, J. H. Meinke, E. S. McGarrity, P. M. Duxbury,“Critical Manifolds in Polycrystalline Grain Structures,” Materials Science Forum 467-470, v. 1039, 2005

E. S. McGarrity, P. M. Duxbury, E. A. Holm, “Roughness Scaling in Grain Boundary Engineered Materials,” in Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Fracture, Turin, Italy, March 2005.

J. H. Meinke, E. S. McGarrity, P. M. Duxbury and E. A. Holm, “Scaling Laws for Critical Manifolds in Polycrystalline Materials,” Phys. Rev. E., 68, December 2003.
File updated :   Friday, 25 APR 2008