Welcome to the McGill Physics Computational Materials Science Group Web Page

Nikolas Provatas
Professor, Canada Research Chair
Department of Physics Rutherford Building,
McGill University, 3600 rue University,
Montreal, Québec H3A 2T8, Canada
[email protected]
Tel: (514) 398-4479


Scientific Director, McGill High Performance Computing Centre,
École de Technologie Supérieure (ETS),
1100 Rue Notre Dame Ouest,
Montreal, Quebec H3C-1K3
Tel: 514 396-8988

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Research interests:
My research is at the interface of condensed matter physics and materials science. It combines high-performance computing with non-equilibrium thermodynamics, statistical mechanics and experiments to understand the fundamental origins of microstructure evolution in materials processes. These include systems undergoing crystallization from a melt or amorphous phases, multi-phase solidification, particle precipitation, grain growth kinetics and reaction-diffusion processes materials. These systems serve as paradigms for understanding pattern formation in non-equilibrium phase transformations. I am interested in porting over information from the microscopic scale to the scales on which material properties are typically realized in practical applications. This connection of length scales can be achieved by course-graining microscopic theories to yield meso-scale continuum and sharp-interface models. Models thus developed can also find use in materials engineering applications. Most of the phenomena I study relevance to industrial materials processing, and some of my research is sponsored by industry.

Prospective Graduate Students:
There are presently two new graduate student positions open in my group to start in the sprig or fall of 2019. Contact me at [email protected] for more info about these positions.

Present & Past Graduate Students/PostDocs in my Research Group ("ACSR") since ~2012. (Note: unless otherwise stated, institution=McGill; I was previuously a Professor at McMaster University in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, from 2002-2012)

  • Emily Wilson(Physics MSc, 2018-): Unified phase field crystal theory of multi-phase transformations
  • Paul Jrdeini(Physics PhD, 20717-): Developing quantitative phase field crystal models with multi-point interactions
  • Matthew Frick(Physics PhD, 2017-): Solute drag studies in steel like alloys using PFC modelling
  • Chukwuka Obi(Physics MSc, 2018-): Exploring the use or AI for rapid phase field simulations of solidificaiton microstructures
  • Richard Boisvert(Honours Math and Computer Science, 2018-): Developing AI technique for rapid phase field simulations
  • Dany Rasmussen(Materials Science PhD, co-supervised, 2015-): Phase field modelling of rapid solidification in additive manufacturing processes
  • Tatu Pinomaa(Applied Physics PhD, Co-supervised with AAlto University, also working at The Technical Reseach Institute of Finland (VTT), 2014-): Phase field modelling of rapid solidification in thermal spray coatings
  • Laishan Wang(Materials Science PhD, Co-supervised with the Harbin Institute of Technology (China), 2017-present). Phase field modelling of weld pool microstructure in laser welding
  • Lin Yang(Physicsi/Chemistry PDF, co-supercvised, 2018-): XPFC modelling of percipitation in tribo-mechanically mixed metal-ligand systems
  • Hossein Azizi(Materials Engineering(UNB)/Physics(McGill) PDF, co-supervised, 2018-): Modelling morphological transtions in solidification microstructures in additively manufactured alloys
  • Kate Elder (Physics MSc, completed June 2017, now a PhD candiate at Northwestern): Phase field crystal modelling of graphene growth on Cu surfaces treated with hydrogen
  • Matthew Seymour (Physics PhD, completed, August 2017. Now working at Intel since August 2016): Phase Field Crystal (PFC) modelling of magneto-crystalline interactions and developing multi-point PFC interactions for modeling complex 2D crystal phases
  • Hossein Azizi (Physics PhD, completed August 2017, now a PDF): Modelling spatio-temporal oscillations of solid combustion fronts in the discrete reactant limit
  • Gabriel Kocher (Physics PhD, completed Feb 2018, now a world leader in Drone Racing; look up GAG707 on social media): Advancing the thermodynamics and thermo-kinetics of phase field crystal (PFC) models for the study of solid-liquid-vapour systems and rapid crystallization
  • Nathan Smith (Physics PhD, completed August 2017): Phase field crystal studies of non-equilibrium phase formation in multi-component materials
  • Raj Shampur(Physics MSc, completed July 2017): Phase field simulations of late stage solidificaiton, segregation and second phase distribution in complex multi-component alloys
  • Paul Jreidini (Physics MSc, completed August 2017, now a PhD candidate): Modelling time-dependent nucleation processes in the phase field crystal model
  • Nan Wang (Physics PDF, completed in 2017. Now a professor Guangdong Technion- Israel Institute of Technology, China): Phase Field Crystal modelling of electromigration in metal interconnects, and stress-deformation and cracking in rapid solidification. In Partnership with General Electric.
  • Lei Wang (Materials Science PhD, Co-supervised with the Northwestern Polytechnical University, China, 2015-2016. Now PDF at UBC): Phase field modelling of hot cracking susceptibility in laser welding
  • Bernadine Jugdutt(Physics MSc, completed 2014. Now a medical student at the University of Alberta): XPFC study of the effect of impurities on solid-liquid surface energy anisotropy in alloys
  • Nana Ofori-Opoku (Materials Science PhD(McMaster)/Physics PDF(McGill), completed 2013/2015. Now working at Canadian Nuclear Labs): Phase field modelling of solidification microstructure, deriving complex amplitide models from structural phase field crystal models. Partnered with Novelis Global Technology Centre.
  • Harith Humadi (Materials Science PhD(McMaster)/Physics(McGill), completed 2013. Now working at Vungle -California): Phase field crystal modelling of solute trapping in rapid crystalliztion of binary alloys
  • Jonathan Stolle (Physics PhD(McMaster), completed, 2013. Now working at Geotab): Modelling solute segregation in the phase field crystal binary alloy model
  • Elizabeth Rowan (Physics MSc(McMaster), completed 2013. Now a PhD candidate at McMaster): Modelling the disjoining potential of grain boundries in in the phase field crystal model
  • Sebastian Gurevich (Physics and Chem Eng RA, completed 2015):Phase field modelling microstructure evolution in microelectronic interconnect alloys, and in liquid crystal systems. Partnered with IBM Canada.
  • David Montiel (Physics PDF, completed 2014. Now working at Uinversity of Michigan): Phase field modelling of solidification microstructures in late stage solidification
  • Michael Greenwood (Materials Science PhD/PDF(McMaster), completed 2008/2010. Now a Researcher at CanmetMATERIALS -NRCan): Adaptive Mesh Refinement (AMR) algorithms for phase feld modelling of solidification microstructures

    • Microstructure Simulation Movies of the ACSR(Advanced Centre for Serious Research):

    Recent Important Summer Schools Conferences and Hackathons

    Course Materials and Links

  • Physics 102 (Introduction to Electricity and Magnetism (2017) Facebook Group new flipped classroom materials for PHYS102 to appear in Late December 2018, stay tuned.
  • Phase Field Book for Physics 657 (Classical Condensed Matter Physics (2016) Lectures (contact me if this link is broken)

    • About the McGill University High Performance Computing (HPC) Centre:
    Visit the website of McGill HPC , McGill's Supercomputing Centre at ETS. The centre is a member of Compute Canada and the Calcul Quebec Networks. Note: we are renovating! In December 2018, the ETS site will be hosting Calcul Quebec's/Compute Canada's latest supercomputer cluster, called "Beluga". Stay posted for more. For help with HPC in your research, contact me direclty, or visit our site at École de Technologie Supérieure (ETS) on the corner of Notre Dame and Peel, 4th floor.

    Select Papers of the Group
    Find all my scientific publications on Google Scholar