Newsletter of the department of physics and nuclear engineering



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#6158


FEN

OMEN


NEWSLETTER OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS AND NUCLEAR ENGINEERING

Recent publications

Biomedicine



Fighting malaria in 

silico 

To find a cure for malaria, scientists 

must first learn to cultivate effectively the 

parasite that causes it, Plasmodium falcipa-



rum. However, this has proven to be a 

difficult task. Researchers from our de-

partment have developed a simulation 

tool, named INDividual DIscrete SIMula-

tion protocol (INDISIM), that qualitative 

reproduces the behavior of 

erythrocites infected with 

the parasite, and will thus 

help in the design of  new 

drugs. The work has been 

performed by the group of  

Antoni Giró in collaboration with re-

searchers from GlaxoSmithKlein, and was 

published in the Journal of  Theoretical Biol-



ogy on June 2, 2007. 

Materials Science



The fragility

of metallic alloys

 Bulk-metallic-glass alloys have many 

interesting structural applications. How-

ever, their production via melt casting is 

strongly limited by their glass-forming 

ability. One of  the principal factors affect-

ing this ability is the nature of  the corre-

sponding supercooled liquid. In collabora-

tion with colleagues from the University 

of  Cambridge, Eloi Pineda has found that 

the liquid fragility of  the Ca-Mg-Cu alloy 

is correlated with its elastic properties, 

similarly to what happens in general 

glasses. This observation could lead to a 

powerful criterion to choose candidate 

compositions for new bulk metallic 

glasses. It was published in the Journal of  

Alloys and Compounds on May 31, 2007.

Meteorology



The tailwind

of butterflies 

The group of  Marta Alarcón, in col-

laboration with researchers from CREAF, 

has studied the migration patterns of  the 

painted lady butterfly, 

Vanessa Cardui, on its trip 

to north-eastern Spain, 

finding that this migra-

tion is aided by African 

wind currents. The 

work was published in the Journal of  Animal 



Ecology in September 2007.

Materials Science



Understanding the 

glass transition

Several features in the transition of  

materials to the glassy state are still a mis-

tery. One of  them is the Johari-Goldstein β  

relaxation, a secondary spectral peak in the 

material’s susceptibility. Luis Carlos Pardo, 

together with colleagues from the Univer-

sity of  Augsburg, has thoroughly character-

ized this feature in benzophenone by 

means of  broadband dielectric spectros-

copy. The results were published in the 

Physical Review E on September 28, 2007.

Nonlinear Dynamics



Silencing oscillators 

Coupled nonlinear oscillators usually 

synchronize their rhythms, as Christian 

Huygens discovered in 1665. However, 

under certain conditions the oscillations are 

killed by coupling. Ekkehard Ullner and 

Jordi Garcia Ojalvo, in collaboration with 

scientists from Moscow and Essex, have 

found a route towards oscillation silencing 

that relies of  phase-repulsive coupling. The 

work appeared in Physical Review Letters on 

October 2, 2007.

DEPARTAMENT DE 

F

ÍSICA I 



E

NGINYERIA 

N

UCLEAR 


NÚM. 3, TARDOR 2007

UNIVERSITAT POLITÈCNICA DE CATALUNYA

www.fen.upc.edu

NEWS

2007 FEN POSTDOCTORAL 

FELLOWSHIPS

The Research Commission of the 

Department has granted financial 

support for two postdoctoral fel-

lows. The recipients this year are 

Drs. Ioannis Skarmoutsos and M. 

Dolores Ruiz. Dr. Skarmoutsos will 

work at the group of Computer 

Simulation in Condensed Matter 

on the determination of structural 

and dynamic properties of molecu-

lar systems in condensed phases. 

Dr. Ruiz will study the dynamics of 

orientationally disordered phases 

by means of neutron spectroscopy, 

at the group of Characterization of 

Materials.

OPEN POSITIONS

• PhD fellowships on the security 

of nuclear fusion and fission

(javier.dies@upc.edu)

• Postdoctoral contract to work 

on the systems biology of multi-

ple sclerosis 

(jordi.g.ojalvo@upc.edu)



UPCOMING EVENTS

• The annual Research Retreat of 

the department will take place 

on February 8, 2008 in the Insti-

tut d’Estudis Catalans, Carrer del 

Carme, 47. For more informa-

tion, 

http://www.fen.upc.edu



• "Third Rio de la Plata Workshop 

on Noise, Chaos and Complexi-

ty in Lasers and Nonlinear Op-

tics", Maldonado, Uruguay, De-

cember 3-7, 2007. Organized by 

Cristina Masoller.  

http://www.fisica.edu.uy/~cris/wo

rkshop.html




Highly cited papers

Jordi José and Margarita Hernanz

“Nucleosynthesis in classical no-

vae: CO vs. ONe white dwarfs”, 

The Astrophysical Journal

 494, 

680-690 (1998), 118 citations 

“This paper presents 14 hydrodynamic 

simulations of  classical nova explosions 

and their nucleosynthesis. The study 

emphasizes the expected contribution of 

novae to the Galactic chemical abun-

dance pattern as well as a thorough 

analysis of  the synthesis of  radioactive 

species of  interest for gamma-ray as-

tronomy (such as 

7

Li, 


22

Na, or 


26

Al). The 

multidisciplinarity of  this work has 

raised significant interest in different 

areas, including cosmochemistry (origin 

of  presolar meteoritic grains), galactic 

chemical evolution, experimental nu-

clear physics, observational astronomy 

(nova light curves and optical spectra), 

or high-energy astrophysics, among 

others. This study is quoted in the re-

view paper "Astrophysics in 1998", by V. 

Trimble (Univ. California at Irvine).”

Jordi José, associate professor at FEN

Meteorology Award

This year’s International Award of  Meteorol-

ogy Eduard Fontseré has been bestowed on 

Carina Serra and Xavier Lana, together with 

colleagues from the Applied Physics Depart-

ment of  the UPC and the University of  Bar-

celona, by the Catalan Association of  Mete-

orology (ACAM). The Award has recognised 

the work entitled "Statistical Distributions of  

the Daily Rainfall Regime in Catalonia 

(Northeastern Spain) for the years 1950-

2000", published in 2005 on the International 



Journal of  Climatology of  the Royal Meteoro-

logical Society of  Great Britain (vol. 25, pages 

1381-1403).

FEN at ITER

The Nuclear Engineering Research Group, 

led by Javier Dies, is responsible of  two pro-

jects associated with the safety of  the ITER 

reactor that is being built in Cadarache, 

France. The projects are:



• Loss of  plasma control event evaluations 

related to the Generic Site Safety Report.



• ITER safety studies: passive plasma termi-

nation for Berylium evaporation in LOCA 

transients.  

Side Note 



Characterizing art 

with synchroton ra-

diation

The group of  Trinitat Pradell has ap-

plied synchrotron radiation for the 

characterization of  romanesque wall 

paintings. The small size of  the radia-

tion beam provides detailed composi-

tional profiles from the different chro-

matic and preparation layers of  the 

paintings.  The results obtained indi-

cate a clear connection between the 

paintings found in the Occitanian 

church of  of  Saint Eulàlia d’Unha in 

the Vall d’Aran (central Pyrenees) and 

the Catalan Romanesque paintings 

from the south bound of  the Pyrenees. 

The article was published online in 



Applied Physics A on August 28, 2007.

DEPARTAMENT DE 

F

ÍSICA I 


E

NGINYERIA 

N

UCLEAR 


NÚM. 3, TARDOR 2007

UNIVERSITAT POLITÈCNICA DE CATALUNYA

www.fen.upc.edu

NEW DOCTORAL

STUDENTS

• Anna Calvo: “Security of nuclear fu-

sion Broader approach”

• David Camacho: “Ultrafast optics and 

coherent quantum control”

• Jordi Casanova: "Multidimensional 

studies of stellar explosions"

• Lorena Espinar: “Optical control of 

gene regulation”

• Rafael Levit: “High-pressure properties 

of orientationally disordered phases”

• Julio C. Martinez: “Homogeneity and 

heterogenety in the supercooled and 

glass state”

• Manel Martinez Cid: “Assessment of 

economic and technical risks in nu-

clear plants”

• Oleg Osychenko: “Path integral Monte 

Carlo methods for fermions”

• Jose Carlos Rivas: “Security of the 

nuclear fusion reactor ITER”

• Vito Roppo: “Linear and nonlinear 

effects in photonic crystals”

• Riccardo Rota: “Ground-state path 

integral Monte Carlo with higher-

order actions”

• Muriel Rovira: “Short-range order in 

orientationally disordered phases”

• Jonàs Sala: “Confinement effects in the 

structure and dynamical properties of 

water via molecular dynamics studies”

NEW MEC RESEARCH

PROJECTS

In its latest call, the Ministerio de Educa-

ción y Ciencia granted the following 

research projects:

• “Multidimensional Modeling of Stellar 

Explosions: Novae, X-Ray Bursts, and 

Thermonuclear Supernovae” (resp: 

Jordi José),  ref. AYA2007-66256

• “Procesos dinámicos en sistemas fisi-

cos auto-ensamblados” (resp: Romu-

aldo Pastor-Satorras), ref. FIS2007-

66485-C02-01

• “Individual-based Modelling (IbM) de 

sistemas microbiológicos para el de-

sarrollo sostenible: medio ambiente, 

seguridad alimentaria y salud” (resp: 

Antoni Giró), ref. CGL2007-65142/

BOS


• “Estudio de convertidores de energía 

de baja tensión para reducción de 

costes y mejora de fiabilidad de siste-

mas de generación eólica” (inv. FEN: 

Carme Hervada), ref. ENE2007-67033-

C03-00


Edited by

Dept. de Física i Eng. Nuclear

2a planta Edifici B5

Campus Nord UPC

C. Jordi Girona Salgado, 1-3 

08034 Barcelona

Tel:  93 401 6973 

Fax:  93 401 7100



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