Professor Daniel Cox’s research interests lie in Theoretical modelling of aggregation processes in biology (especially amyloid diseases - Mad Cow and Alzheimer’s), Electrical Properties of DNA, and Environmental Issues and Science. As a professor in the Physics Department at the University of California, Davis, he is involved in the campus initiative on Nanoparticles in the Environment, Agriculture, and Technology, and is currently the Co-Director of the Institute for Complex Adaptive Matter. He received his PhD in Physics from Cornell University in 1985.

In 1998, Dr. Boebinger became head of the pusled magnet laboratory at Los Alamos National Laboratory, one of the three campuses of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (MagLab). There he continued his research on the high-temperature superconductors, using the intense pulsed magnetic fields to suppress superconductivity. The goal is to study the behavior of the samples in the absence of their high-temperature superconductivity, with the expectation that this behavior underpins the superconducting state. In 2004, Dr. Boebinger moved to Florida State University to become director of the MagLab. His research continues to focus on high-temperature superconductivity and he maintains laboratories and close collaborations with colleagues at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He received his PhD in Physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1986.

Protein Folding and Misfolding. 
The Shea Research Group at UC Santa Barbara focuses on developing and applying the techniques of statistical and computational physics to the study of biological problems. Current research interests include the thermodynamics of folding folding of the src-SH3 protein domain, chaperonin-mediated protein folding, and protein and peptide aggregation. They use a combination of Monte Carlo and Molecular Dynamics simulations using coarse grained as well as atomically detailed models. She received her PhD in Chemistry from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1997.

Single Molecule Spectroscopy and Molecular Motors. 
David Bensimon is CNRS director of Research at the Laboratoire de Physique Statistique of the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris. His main interests are the study of DNA and DNA/protein interactions. That research, which started in 1992, led to the development of magnetic tweezers adn the discovery of molecular combing and P-DNA, the structure adopted by DNA at large positive torques. He and his research colleagues have contributed to a more detailed understanding of the interactions between DNA and topisomerases (the enzymes that disentangle DNA), helicases (the enzymes that open up the double helix), DNA polymerases (responsible for the replication of DNA), and a variety of DNA translocases (FtsK, chromatine remodeling factors, etc.).

As a professor of chemistry at the University of Chicago, Ka Yee C. Lee focuses her research on the interdisciplinary area which can be termed as “interfacial medicine”. Using two-dimensional monolayers, either at the air-water interface or transferred onto solid substrates, and supported bilayers as model systems, along with various microscopy and scattering techniques, they plan to carry out fundamental studies on the interactions between lipids and proteins to gain insights into the biophysical aspects of these diseases. The two primary disease research projects involve Lung Surfactant System and Respiratory Distress Syndrome (RDS) and Amyloid-Beta (Ab) Peptides and Alzheimer’s Disease. She received her Master’s of Science Degree in 1987 and PhD in 1992 in Applied Physics from Harvard University.

In 1998, Dr. Boebinger became head of the pusled magnet laboratory at Los Alamos National Laboratory, one of the three campuses of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (MagLab). There he continued his research on the high-temperature superconductors, using the intense pulsed magnetic fields to suppress superconductivity. The goal is to study the behavior of the samples in the absence of their high-temperature superconductivity, with the expectation that this behavior underpins the superconducting state. In 2004, Dr. Boebinger moved to Florida State University to become director of the MagLab. His research continues to focus on high-temperature superconductivity and he maintains laboratories and close collaborations with colleagues at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He received his PhD in Physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1986.

Professor Nandini Trivedi focuses her research on Quantum Monte Carlo Simulations of Strongly Interacting Bose and Fermi Atoms and High Tc Supersonductivity. Her research group was the first to provide a credible and natural explanation for gap-like features seen above Tc in the underdoped cuprates in terms of precursor pairing correlations. They have also developed a variational formulation of the strongly correlated superconducting state that has given insight into a major puzzle about the cuprates: the existence of two energy scales, the gap and Tc, with qualitatively different doping dependences, quite unlike BCS theory. She received her PhD in Physics from Cornell University in 1987.