Christopher Marton

I am a PhD candidate in Chemical Engineering at MIT. My research is focused on nanoscale process systems engineering. More specifically, I am interested in the development of design procedures for self-assembling systems.

Prior to coming to MIT, I attended the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. While at UW, I was involved in reserach into data clustering and superstructure optimization. I also worked as a co-op student at Imperial Oil in Toronto.

1. What topics do you have some expertise in and would you be willing to help others learn them?

Chemical Engineering, Data Clustering

2. What do you want to learn?

I'm interested in learning what tools exist for addressing computationally irreducible systems.

3. Do you have any projects that would benefit from interdisciplinary approach?

I would like to discuss agent-based modeling techniques and also the protein folding problem.

4. Do you have any ideas for what sort of project you would like to attack this summer?

I'm most interested in learning what types of complex systems projects exist in other disciplines.

5. What's your favorite "big problem"?

What types of external stimuli are required to direct a large, complex system from one stable point to a different stable point. For example, what types of changes would shift the energy market from petroleum products to an alternative source.

6. If you were given the opportunity to see where we were in one hundred years with respect to progress on one problem/subject, what would it be?

I'd like to see what the primary energy source is in 100 years.