Vattika Sivised to present at American Physical Society March Meeting

Undergraduate student Vattika Sivised, in conjunction with Dr. Theja De Silva, assistant professor of Physics, will present her theoretical ideas on the thermodynamic properties of protein folding process at the American Physical Society March Meeting 2017 on March 14.

Sivised, who has worked with De Silva since spring of 2016, will present during an undergraduate session held as part of the meeting’s theoretical physics section.

Understanding the process of protein folding is extremely important, De Silva said, referencing the fact that proteins are one of the “fundamental building blocks” of life.

“Protein folding is a thermodynamically driven process and the collective, mergency behavior of constituent amino acids are responsible for the folding,” he said. “By modeling the protein using a q-state Potts model, Vattika has studied the thermodynamic properties of protein folding using a mean-field theory.”

In addition to receiving a travel grant to attend the APS March Meeting, Sivised already received a travel grant from the Georgia Academy of Science (GAS) to present her results at the annual GAS meeting at Young Harris College on March 24.

Sivised has also previously published scholarly work in the university’s Arsenal – an undergraduate research journal produced and published by Augusta University undergraduates. Her latest work, published in the Arsenal‘s fall 2016 issue, examined the way protagonist Lou Ford’s psychopathy is introduced in Jim Thompson’s 1952 American crime novel The Killer Inside Me.

Every year, the APS March Meeting brings together nearly 10,000 physicists, scientists and students from all over the world to share groundbreaking research from industry, universities and major labs in condensed matter physics and material science.

Visit the American Physical Society website for more information.