Detail:

Abstract 
A holy grail of nano-technology is to create truly complex, multi-component structures by self-assembly. Most self-assembly has focused on the creation of structural complexity. In my talk, I will discuss Addressable Complexity: the creation of structures that contain hundreds or thousands of distinct building blocks that all have to find their place in a 3D structure. Recent experiments have demonstrated the feasibility of making such structures. Simulation and theory yield surprising insights that can inform the design of novel structures and materials. 

Introduction of the speaker: 
Professor Daniel Frenkel is a theoretical chemist well known worldwide. After his PhD at the University of Amsterdam (1977), he worked as a postdoctoral fellow at UCLA (Chemistry and Biochemistry Department). Subsequently, he worked at Shell and at the University of Utrecht. Between 1987 and 2007, he carried out his research at the FOM Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics AMOLF in Amsterdam where he was employed since 1987. In the same period, he was appointed (part time) professor at the Universities of Utrecht and Amsterdam. Since 2007 he is 1968 Professor of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge. In 2008 he was elected Fellow of Trinity College Cambridge. He is member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (1998), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2008), and TWAS (The Third World Academy of Sciences) (2012). He is a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (London) since 2006 and National Academy of Science (USA) since 2016. He is a recipient of the Aneesur Rahman Prize from the American Physical Society and the Berni J Alder CECAM prize. Professor Frenkel has co-authored ´Understanding Molecular Simulation´ (together with Berend Smit), which has grown into a handbook used worldwide by aspiring computational physicists. Research in Daan Frenkel's group focuses on the numerical exploration of routes to design novel, self-assembling structures and materials.