Biography
Matthew (Matt) Kroonblawd is Deputy Group Leader of Non-Equilibrium Theory and a computational chemist in the Materials Dynamics and Kinetics Group. He started as a postdoc under Nir Goldman following a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Missouri under Tommy Sewell. He is focused on developing computational approaches to understand interconnections between the mechanical, thermal, and chemical responses of molecular materials under nonequilibrium conditions. His work is rooted in molecular dynamics modeling and forages physically motivated connections to mesoscale and continuum theory.
Research interests include:
- Mechanochemistry
- Shock physics and high-rate processes
- Transport phenomena
- Materials aging and reactive degradation
- Mathematical methods in chemistry
Material systems of interest include:
- High explosives
- Polymers
- Organic small molecules and molecular crystals
- Surfaces and interfaces
Education
- Ph.D. Chemistry, University of Missouri - Columbia, 2016
- B.A. Physics, University of Minnesota - Morris, 2012
Publications
2022 1 publication
- Anisotropic strength behavior of single-crystal TATB, M. P. Kroonblawd*, B. A. Steele, M. D. Nelms, L. E. Fried, and R. A. Austin, Modelling and Simulation in Materials Science and Engineering 30, 014004 (2022). Invited article in the Emerging Leaders 2021 focus issue. https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-651X/ac3ca4
2021 5 publications
- A hotspot's better half: Non-equilibrium intra-molecular strain in shock physics, B. W. Hamilton, M. P. Kroonblawd, C. Li, and A. Strachan*, Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters 12, 2756 (2021). https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jpclett.1c00233
- Strongly anisotropic thermomechanical response to shock wave loading in oriented samples of the triclinic molecular crystal 1,3,5-triamino-2,4,6-trinitrobenzene (TATB), P. Zhao, M. P. Kroonblawd, N. Mathew, and T. Sewell*, Journal of Physical Chemistry C 125, 22747 (2021). https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jpcc.1c05139
- Fourier-like thermal relaxation of nanoscale explosive hot spots, M. P. Kroonblawd*, B. W. Hamilton, and A. Strachan, Journal of Physical Chemistry C 125, 20570 (2021). https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jpcc.1c05599
- Sensitivity of pore collapse heating to the melting temperature and shear viscosity of HMX, M. P. Kroonblawd* and R. A. Austin, Mechanics of Materials 152, 103644 (2021). https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167663620306815
- A quantum-based approach to predict primary radiation damage in polymeric networks, M. P. Kroonblawd*, N. Goldman, A. Maiti, and J. P. Lewicki, Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation 17, 463 (2021). https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jctc.0c00967
2020 3 publications
- High explosive ignition through chemically activated nanoscale shear bands, M. P. Kroonblawd* and L. E. Fried, Physical Review Letters 124, 206002 (2020). https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.206002
- Simulating transient heat transfer in graphene at finite Knudsen number via the Boltzmann transport equation and molecular dynamics, J. G. Christenson, M. P. Kroonblawd, R. A. Austin, L. E. Fried, and R. Philips*, Physical Review B 102, 205406 (2020). https://journals.aps.org/prb/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevB.102.205406
- Mechanochemical synthesis of glycine oligomers in a virtual rotational diamond anvil cell, B. A. Steele, N. Goldman, I-F. W. Kuo, and M. P. Kroonblawd*, Chemical Science 11, 7760 (2020). Cover Article (front). https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2020/SC/D0SC00755B
2019 2 publications
- Synthesis of functionalized nitrogen-containing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and other prebiotic compounds in impacting glycine solutions, M. P. Kroonblawd*, R. K. Lindsey, and N. Goldman, Chemical Science 10, 6091 (2019). Cover Article (back). https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2019/sc/c9sc00155g
- Pressure-induced phase transition in 1,3,5-Triamino-2,4,6-trinitrobenzene (TATB), B. A. Steele, S. M. Clarke, M. P. Kroonblawd, I-F. W. Kuo, P. F. Pagoria, S. N. Tkachev, J. S. Smith, S. Bastea, L. E. Fried, J. M. Zaug, E. Stavrou*, and O. Tschauner*, Applied Physics Letters 114, 191901 (2019). Cover Article (front). https://aip.scitation.org/doi/full/10.1063/1.5091947
2018 3 publications
- Mechanochemical formation of heterogeneous diamond structures during rapid uniaxial compression in graphite, M. P. Kroonblawd* and N. Goldman, Physical Review B 97, 184106 (2018). https://journals.aps.org/prb/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevB.97.184106
- Generating converged accurate free energy surfaces for chemical reactions with a force-matched semiempirical model, M. P. Kroonblawd*, F. Pietrucci, A. M. Saitta, and N. Goldman, Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation 14, 2207 (2018). https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.jctc.7b01266
- Role of filler and its heterostructure on moisture sorption mechanisms in polyimide films, H. N. Sharma, M. P. Kroonblawd, Y. Sun, and E. A. Glascoe*, Scientific Reports 8, 16889 (2018). https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-35181-1
2016 1 publication
- A generalized crystal-cutting method for modeling arbitrarily oriented crystals in 3D periodic simulation cells with applications to crystal-crystal interfaces, M. P. Kroonblawd, N. Mathew, S. Jiang, and T. D. Sewell*, Computer Physics Communications 207, 232 (2016). https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010465516301898
Other 3 publications
- Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=AWhLRX0AAAAJ&hl=en
Selected Publications:
*Corresponding Author
Awards
2024, PLS Mentor Award
2021, WSC/CP Monthly Code Group Award for “Leading an LSCI effort on the Sierra supercomputer"
2020, WPD Silver Award for “Discovery of shock initiation mechanism in TATB"
2019, WCI Team Gold Award for “Discovery of new phase of TATB high explosive"
2019, PLS Directorate Science and Technology Award for “Elucidation of prebiotic synthesis pathways that have illuminated questions regarding the origins of life"
2015, SPOT Award
2015, Student Symposium Poster Award for an “Outstanding group presentation in materials science"
2016, Breckenridge/Lyons Award for Outstanding Graduate Research
2012, Nightingale Chemistry Scholarship
2012, Abbott Award for Physics
2011, Scholar of the College
2010, Betty Peterson Memorial Scholarship for Piano Accompanying