Department of Physics and Astronomy
University of Pennsylvania,
Philadelphia, PA 19104.
Tel: (215) 898-5949

anlau@physics.upenn.edu
http://www.dept.physics.upenn.edu/~anlau
 

Special Interest:  Soft Condensed Matter and Biologically-Inspired Physics

Birthplace and Date of Birth: Hong Kong, December 15, 1971

Citizenship: U.S.A.
 
 

Education:
 

Ph.D.  in Physics, October 2000, University of California, Santa Barbara.
           Thesis  : Fluctuation and Correlation Effects in Electrostatics of Highly-Charged surfaces
           Advisor: Prof. Philip A. Pincus

M.A. in Physics, March 1998, University of California, Santa Barbara.

B.S.  in Physics (with Honors), June 1994, University of California, Davis.
 

Experience:
 
 

University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia ( Sept. 2001 - Present )

        Postdoctoral Research Fellow: Penn Soft Matter Group.
 

College de France, Paris, France ( Nov. 2000 -- August 2001 )

       Postdoctoral Research Fellow: in the condensed matter group headed by Prof. P.-G de Gennes.
 

University of California, Santa Barbara (Sept. 1994 -- Oct. 2000)

       Research Assistant: Conducted active, independent research projects in theoretical
                       soft condensed matter physics (advisor: Prof. P.A. Pincus),
                       Superconductivity in SNS junctions (advisor: Prof. Herbert Kroemer).

       Teaching Assistant: Taught discussion and laboratory classes in undergraduate physics.
                       Graded and prepared solutions for graduate quantum mechanics and
                       statistical mechanics.
 

Los Alamos National Laboratory (Summer, 1995)

        Research Assistant:Research on non-linear spatially extended systems.  Performed
                        analytical work and numerical simulations on stochastic systems
                        which exhibit chaotic dynamics.
                        (Advisor: Dr. Niels Gronbech-Jensen, T-11).
 

University of California, Davis (1993--1994)

      Teaching Assistant: Graded and prepared solutions for undergraduate freshman engineering
                        physics courses.
 

Los Alamos National Laboratory (Spring, 1993)

    Research Assistant: A selected participant of Science and Engineering Research
                        Semester (SER) Program.  Research on non-neutral plasma physics and
                        generalizations of the Penning Trap. (Advisor: Dr. Leaf Turner, T-15).
 
 

Awards and Honors:
 

Department Citation: For excellence in the major program and
outstanding GPA in courses given by the department major program,
University of California, Davis (1994).

Saxon-Patten Prize in Physics: For achieving an excellent academic
record and showing interest and promise in continued work in physics and/or
related physical sciences, University of California, Davis (1994).

John Cardy Award: For excellent academic performance and
evidence of future promise in physics, University of California, Santa Barbara (1995).
 

Publications
 

A.W.C. Lau, B.D. Hoffman, J.C. Crocker, and T.C. Lubensky,
Microrheology, stress fluctuations and active behavior of living cells,
Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 198101 (2003).

A.W.C. Lau, M. Portigliatti, E. Raphael, and L. Leger
Spreading of Latex Particles on a Substrate, Europhys. Lett. 60, 717 (2002).

A.W.C. Lau and P. Pincus,
Counterion Condensation and Fluctuation-Induced Attraction,
Phys. Rev. E 66,041501 (2002).

D. Lascoste, A.W.C. Lau, T.C. Lubensky,
Phase Transitions in Lyotropic Nematic Gels, Eur. Phys. J. E 8, 403 (2002).

A.W.C. Lau, Keng-Hui Lin, and A.G. Yodh,
Entropic interactions in suspensions of semiflexible rods:
Short-range effects of flexibility, Phys. Rev. E 66, 020401(R) (2002).

D.B. Lukatsky, S.A. Safran, A.W.C. Lau, P. Pincus,
Enhanced Counterion Localization Induced by Surface charge Modulation,
Europhys Lett. 58, 785 (2002)

A.W.C. Lau, D.B. Lukatsky, P. Pincus, and S.A. Safran,
Charge-Fluctuations and Counterion Condensation, Phys. Rev. E 65 051502 (2002)

A.W.C. Lau, P. Pincus, Dov Levine, and H.A. Fertig,
Electrostatic Attraction of Coupled Wigner Crystals: Finite Temperature Effects,
Phys. Rev. E 63 051604 (2001)

A.W.C. Lau, Dov Levine, and P. Pincus,
Novel Electrostatic Attraction from Plasmon Fluctuations, Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 4116 (2000).

A.W.C. Lau and P. Pincus,
Binding of Oppositely Charged Membranes and Membrane Reorganization,
Eur. Phys. J. B 10, 175-180 (1999).

A.W.C. Lau and P. Pincus,
Charged-Fluctuation-Induced Nonanalytic Bending Rigidity, Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 1338 (1998).

Niels Gronbech-Jensen, David Cai, A.R. Bishop, A.W.C. Lau, and Peter S. Lomdahl,
Bunched Fluxons in Coupled Josephson Junctions, Phy. Rev. B 50, 6352 (1994).

L. Turner, T.N. Tiouririne, A.W.C. Lau,
Compressional Oscillation Frequency of an Anharmonic Oscillator --
the Spherical Non-neutral Plasma, J. Math. Phys. 35, 2349 (1994).

T.N. Tiouririne, L. Turner, and A.W.C. Lau,
Multipole Traps for Non-neutral Plasmas, Phys. Rev. Lett. 72, 1204 (1994).
 

Presentations and Seminars:
 

A.W.C. Lau, Electrostatics of Highly Charged Surfaces: Fluctuation and Correlation Effects,
Invited Talk, Institut Charles Sadron, STRASBOURG, France (March, 2001).

A.W.C. Lau, Electrostatics of Highly Charged Surfaces: Fluctuation and Correlation Effects,
Invited Talk, Applied Mathematics Seminar, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC (Oct., 2000).

A.W.C. Lau, Fluctuation-Induced Counterion Condensation,
Invited Talk, Internal Seminar, University of California, Los Angeles, CA (Sept., 2000)

A.W.C. Lau, Dov Levine, and P. Pincus,
Plasmon Fluctuations and Long-range Electrostatic Attraction,
contributed talk at the  APS Centennial Meeting (Session XC14), Atlanta, GA (1999).

A.W.C. Lau and P. Pincus,
Charged-Fluctuation-Induced Nonanalytic Bending Rigidity, seminar and poster session at the
International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Triste, Italy (May 1998).

A.W.C. Lau and P. Pincus,
Charged-Fluctuation-Induced Nonanalytic Bending Rigidity, contributed talk at the
APS March Meeting (Session Y24), Los Angeles, CA (1998).