Macromolecules in aqueous solution can be treated as a mechanical system with Brownian motion. I will motivate a theory of stochastic macromolecular mechanics (SM3) based on polymer physics, and recent experimental work using AFM (atomic force microscopy) measuring non-covalent association force between molecules, and the chemomechanics of molecular motors. The latter system is not in a state of equilibrium, but rather in a thermodynamic nonequilibrium steady state. This dynamic theory, based on a Markov description in a phase space, gives rise to a novel, mesoscopic nonequilibrium thermodynamics in phase space. I shall introduce this theory, illustrate its relationship to the classical nonequilibrium thermodynamics (de Groot-Mazur), and then show several applications to chemistry and biochemistry.

报告人简介: 北京大学天体物理学本科毕业，圣路易斯华盛顿大学生物化学博士，现为西雅图华盛顿大学应用数学系教授。早年研究工作包括单分子生物物理的实验与数据分析，蛋白质折叠的物理化学，和分子马达的数学模型。近年来主要研究方向为用随机动态系统的数语言和统计热力学的思想来刻画细胞层面的生命过程：包括细胞内生物化学反应动力学作为开系统及其定态的理论，首创化学自由能耗散与细胞生物化学信号传导定量关系的研究。他从具体生物化学建模经验中发展出来的一套介观随机热力学的数学理论现为国际前沿课题之一。