Denis Evans

Stephen Williams

Edie Sevick

Suresh Bhatia

Hanspeter Huber

Dennis Isbister

Karl Travis

Peter Daivis

Paul Bernhardt

Billy Todd

Lamberto Rondoni

Barbara Kirchner

Eddie Cohen

BSc(Hons I) PhD Newcastle FRACI

Associate Professor
Physical and Theoretical Chemistry
Deputy Director
Nanoscale Science and Technology Centre

Ph:. +61 7 3735 3921
Fax: + 61 7 3735 7773
Email: D.Bernhardt@griffith.edu.au
Official GU Web Page: here

Debra Bernhardt is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Science at Griffith University. Her PhD studies were in the field of quantum chemistry and her fields of research now include statistical mechanics, dynamical systems theory, nonequilibrium fluids and molecular dynamics simulations of fluids.

Debra's research interests are in the study of liquids under equilibrium and nonequilibrium conditions, development of the theory of nonequilibrium fluids and use of simulations to assist in understanding experimental results. Current research projects include:

• Study of nonequilibrium liquids via statistical mechanics; nonequilibrium molecular dynamics; dynamical systems theory; chaos theory
• The fluctuation theorem
• The study of fluids in confined spaces
• Development of algorithms for molecular dynamics simulations
• Calculation of liquid properties: Combining molecular dynamics simulations with quantum mechanical calculations to determine properties of liquids

1. Denis J. Evans, Debra J. Searles and Emil Mittag,
   "Fluctuation Theorem for Hamiltonian Systems - Le Chatelier's Principle",
   Physical Review E, 63, 051105(4) (2001).


2. Hanspeter Huber, Barbara Kirchner and Debra J. Searles,
   "Is there an iceberg effect in the water/DMSO mixture? Some information from computational chemistry",
   Journal of Molecular Liquids, 98-99, 71-77 (2002).


3. G. M. Wang, E. M. Sevick, Emil Mittag, Debra J. Searles and Denis J. Evans,
   "Experimental demonstration of violations of the Second Law of Thermodynamics",
   Physical Review Letters, 89, 050601 (2002).


4. Denis J. Evans and Debra J. Searles,
   "The Fluctuation Theorem",
   Advances in Physics, 51, 1529 - 1585 (2002).


5. Owen G. Jepps, Suresh K. Bhatia and Debra J. Searles,
   "Wall mediated transport in confined spaces: Exact theory",
   Physical Review Letters, 91, 126102/1-126102/4 (2003).


6. Markus G. Muller, Edme H. Hardy, Patrick S. Vogt, Christoph Bratschi, Barbara Kirchner, Hanspeter Huber and Debra J. Searles,
   "Calculation of the deuteron quadrupole relaxation rate in a mixture of water and dimethyl sulfoxide",
   Journal of the Americal Chemical Society, 126, 4704-4710 (2004).


7. Owen Jepps, Denis J. Evans and Debra J. Searles,
   "The fluctuation theorem and Lyapunov weights",
   Physica D, 187, 326-337 (2004).


8. Denis J. Evans, Debra J. Searles and Lamberto Rondoni,
   "On the application of the Gallavotti-Cohen Fluctuation Relation to thermostatted steady states near equilibrium",
   Physical Review E, 71, 056120/1-13 (2005).


9. Federico Frascoli, Debra J. Searles and B. D. Todd
   "Chaotic properties of planar elongational flows and planar shear flows: Lyapunov exponents, conjugate-pairing rule and phase space contraction",
   Physical Review E, 73, 046206/1-12 (2006)


10. Karl P. Travis and Debra J. Searles,
    "Effect of solvation and confinement on the trans-gauche isomerisation reaction in n-butane",
    Journal of Chemical Physics, 125, 164501/1-15(2006).


11. Debra J. Searles, Lamberto Rondoni and Denis J. Evans
    "The Steady State Fluctuation Relation for the Dissipation Function",
    Journal of Statistical Physics, 128, 1337-1363 (2007).


12. E.M. Sevick, R. Prabhakar, Stephen R. Williams and Debra J. Searles
    "Fluctuation Theoerms",
    Annual Review of Physical Chemistry, 59, 603-633 (2008).( First published December 11, 2007; doi:10.1146/annurev.physchem.58.032806.104555 )


13. Denis J. Evans, Debra J. Searles and Stephen R. Williams,
    "On the Fluctuation Theorem for the Dissipation Function and its connection with Response Theory ",
    Journal Chemical Physics, 128 014504/1-6 (2008).


14. Carlo Paneni, Debra J. Searles and Lamberto Rondoni
    "Temporal asymmetry of fluctuations in nonequilibrium steady states: Fluctuation Paths, correlation functions and nonlinear response theory",
    Journal of Chemical Physics, accepted (2008).