Show/hide main menu

Academic Staff A-Z

Professor Peter Sollich

PeterSollich2Telephone: +44 020 7848 2875

Email: peter.sollich@kcl.ac.uk

Office: S5.25, Strand Building, Strand Campus

Title: Professor of Statistical Mechanics, in Disordered Systems research group.

Personal Website

Biography

Oct 2004 - present: Professor of Statistical Mechanics in the Department of Mathematics.
 

Sep 2002 - Sep 2004: Reader in the Department of Mathematics.

Nov 1999 - Aug 2002 Disordered Systems and Neural Networks Group, Department of Mathematics, King's College London

Lecturer in the Department of Mathematics.

Working on: disorder effects in soft condensed matter (rheology, polydispersity), spin glass theory (links to quantum coding), general models of out-of-equilibrium dynamics (kinetically constrained spin chains, effective temperatures), and theory of learning processes and algorithms (Gaussian processes, Support Vector Machines).  

Oct 1998 - Oct 1999: Disordered Systems and Neural Networks Group, Department of Mathematics, King's College London, Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Research Fellow.

Working on: disorder effects in soft condensed matter (rheology, polydispersity), general models of slow dynamics (kinetically constrained spin chains), and theory of learning processes (Gaussian processes, online learning).

Nov 1995 - Sep 1998: Condensed Matter Group, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Research Fellow.

Working on: disorder effects, metastability and glassy dynamics (non-equilibrium statistical mechanics) in soft condensed matter.

Oct 1992 - Sep 1995 Theory Group, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh

Ph.D. on `Asking intelligent questions - The statistical mechanics of query learning'.  

Working on: statistical mechanics of disordered systems applied to neural network learning.

Oct 1991 - Nov 1992 Theory of Condensed Matter, Department of Physics, Cambridge University

M.Phil. on `Fluctuations and Rigid Unit Modes in Framework Structures'.

Working on statistical mechanics of fluctuation effects in phase transitions  

Apr 1989 - Sep 1991 Universitaet Heidelberg, Germany

Studying undergraduate physics, maths and chemistry.

Research Interests

  • Disordered Systems and Neural Networks
  • Statistical mechanics of disordered systems, including:
  • Effects of disorder and metastability on mechanical behaviour of `soft' materials (foams, emulsions, dense colloids)
  • Effects of polydispersity (infinitely many different particle species, for example particles with a continuous range of radii in a colloid, polymers with a spread of chain lengths): Glassy phases, multiple phase coexistence, ...
  • Spin glass theory (entropy bounds for +/-J spin glasses)
  • General models of glassy dynamics, e.g., kinetically constrained spin models
  • Learning processes and algorithms:
  • Gaussian processes: learning curves, equivalent kernels
  • Bayesian methods for Support Vector Machines
  • Enquiries from prospective Ph.D. students who might be interested in working in any of fields listed above are always welcome; the best way to contact him is by email:  peter.sollich@kcl.ac.uk

Selection of Publications

Click here to see his full publications list.

 

internaladd1
Sitemap Site help Terms and conditions Accessibility Recruitment News Centre Contact us

© 2012 King's College London | Strand | London WC2R 2LS | England | United Kingdom | Tel +44 (0)20 7836 5454