Topological aspects of glass transition in polymers: the dendrimer case
K. Karatasos (from Greece)

Biography
My name is Dr. K. Karatasos. I graduated from University of Crete, Greece with a degree in Physics in 1991. In 1993 I received an M.Sc. in Physical Chemistry from the Chemistry Department, Un. Of Crete and a PhD in 1997 from the same Department, in the area of Polymer Dynamics. Soon afterwards I moved to Leeds, Physics Dept. and the Interdisciplinary Research Center (IRC) for Polymer Physics, where I worked as research assistant till February 2000, focusing my efforts on the study of local polymer dynamics by means of molecular dynamics simulations. From March 2000 till June 2001 I joined the Polymer Physics group, Physics Department, in the free University of Brussels which was participating in a european network aiming at new routes to understanding polymer materials using experiments and realistic modeling. After 1 year of military service, I took a post as a visiting professor in the Materials Science and Technology Department, University of Crete till February 2003. From March 2003 and onwards I hold a Lecturer post in the Chemical Engineering Department, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.

Abstract
The aim of this work was to investigate the effect of the dendritic topology to local polymer dynamics and its connection to the glass transition phenomena that was recently observed experimentally in dendrimer melts. For that purpose extensive Molecular Dynamics simulations were performed in model dendrimer melts of generation 5 and generation 6 dendrimers. Preliminary results indicate the existence of new dynamic modes in local motion, not observed in dendrimer molecules of smaller generations. The origin and the connection of this dynamic response to the glass transition phenomena in these molecules, will be explored in detail.

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K. Karatasos