MU Physics - Ioan Kosztin

Ioan Kosztin

associate professor of physics

E-mail:	KosztinI@missouri.edu
Phone:	(573) 882-7241
Fax:	(573) 882-4195
Office:	308 Physics Building
Mailing Address:	Department of Physics & Astronomy University of Missouri - Columbia Columbia, MO 65211
Research Areas:	Theoretical Biophysics and Condensed Matter Physics

Educational Background

Ph.D.	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1997). Advisor: Prof. A.J. Leggett (Physics Nobel Prize, 2003) Thesis title: Topics in theory of superconductivity
MS	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1993).
Dipl.	"Babes-Bolyai" University, Cluj, Romania (1985).

Research Interests: Theoretical and Computational Biophysics

The main motivation and goal of my research in biological physics is to understand how living matter is organized and functions at different (e.g., atomic or microscopic, sub-cellular or mesoscopic) levels. In my research, I employ and develop computational methods widely used in molecular modeling (e.g., large scale, parallel molecular dynamics simulations, molecular visualization, stochastic modeling and analysis), as well as, analytical methods used in theoretical physics.

The type of problems I am currently working on are related to: effect of static and dynamic disorder (thermal fluctuations) on energy and charge transfer in biomolecular systems, mass and charge transport in transmembrane channel proteins, reconstruction of potential of mean force from molecular dynamics simulations, aggregation phenomena in biological systems, mechanical force generation and signaling mechanism in G-proteins, and force transduction by motor proteins.

Selected Publications

Lorant Janosi, Ioan Kosztin and Ana Damjanovic,
``Theoretical prediction of spectral and optical properties of bacteriochlorophylls in thermally disordered LH2 antenna complexes'',
Journal of Chemical Physics 125, 014903 (2006)

Ioan Kosztin, Bogdan Barz and Lorant Janosi,
``Calculating potentials of mean force and diffusion coefficients from nonequilibirum processes without Jarzynski's equality",
Journal of Chemical Physics 124, 064106 (2006)

Lorant Janosi, Harindar Keer, Ioan Kosztin and Thorsten Ritz,
``Influence of subunit structure on the oligomerization state of light harvesting complexes: a free energy calculation study'',
Chemical Physics 323, 117 (2006)

Ioan Kosztin and Klaus Schulten,
``Fluctuation-Driven Molecular Transport Through an Asymmetric Membrane Channel'',
Physical Review Letters 93, 238102 (2004)
URL: http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v93/e238102
Featured in: "Winning an Uphill Battle", Phys. Rev. Focus 14, story 23

Ioan Kosztin, Robijn Bruinsma, Paul O'lague, and Klaus Schulten,
``Mechanical force generation by G-proteins'',
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 99, 3575 (2002)
[DOI: www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.052209199]

Ana Damjanovic, Ioan Kosztin, Ulrich Kleinekathofer, and Klaus Schulten,
``Excitons in a Photosynthetic Light-Harvesting System: A Combined Molecular Dynamics/Quantum Chemistry and Polaron Model Study'',
Physical Review E 65, 31919 (2002).
[DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.65.031919]

Ioan Kosztin, Qijin Chen, Ying-Jer Kao, and K. Levin,
``Pair Fluctuations, Collective Modes and Gauge Invariance in the BCS - Bose-Einstein Crossover Scenario'',
Physical Review B 61, 11662 (2000).

Qijin Chen, Ioan Kosztin, and K. Levin,
``Unusual thermodynamical and transport signatures of the BCS to Bose-Einstein crossover scenario below T_c'',
Physical Review Letters 85, 2801 (2000).

Ioan Kosztin, Simon Kos, Michael Stone and Anthony J. Leggett,
``Free Energy of an Inhomogeneous Superconductor: a Wave Function Approach'',
Physical Review B 58, 9365 (1998).

Ioan Kosztin and Anthony J. Leggett,
``Nonlocal Effects on the Magnetic Penetration Depth in d-wave Superconductors'',
Physical Review Letters 79, 135 (1997).