Stuart Alan Rice

My research interests are currently in two broad areas: active control of quantum dynamical processes, and the properties of inhomogeneous liquids, in particular interfaces that involve a liquid.  In the first category, the goal is to develop theoretical understanding of methods to achieve control of selectivity of product formation in a chemical reaction.  The focus of the research effort is on developing a general formalism for the control of quantum dynamical systems, on understanding the limitations to the use of optimally shaped time dependent fields to control the evolution of a molecule, extending the theory of control to reactions in condensed media, and developing a version of the general theory that is useful when applied to large molecules.  In the second category, the aim is to understand the general properties of inhomogeneous liquids (e.g. the structure of the liquid-vapor and liquid-solid interfaces) and the specific structural and dynamical properties of quasi-two dimensional systems.