Research Interest 
Our research interests lie in the general areas of chemical
pattern formation and nonlinear kinetics.
The investigation of spatio-temporal
self-organization has led to a fundamentally new understanding of
the complex dynamics in many chemical and physico-chemical
non-equilibrium systems. The dynamic order of these systems is
caused by their underlying nonlinear kinetics, which give rise to
a fascinating wealth of dissipative patterns, ranging from Turing
patterns and rotating spiral waves to "chemical turbulence". One of the
most striking phenomena is the propagation of excitation waves in
nonlinear reaction-diffusion media (e.g., the Belousov-Zhabotinsky
reaction or catalytic surfaces). While the latter example already
indicates the relevance of these phenomena to applied research,
the remarkable interdisciplinary importance is reflected by recent
studies which demonstrate the existence of similar structures in
numerous biochemical and biological media (e.g. glycolysis, cardiac
tissue, chicken retina, frog oocytes).
A major goal of the corresponding research activities is to
understand certain rules that govern the
complexity of living systems by investigating relevant chemical model
reactions. In this context, the experimental analysis
of the macroscopic
concentration patterns appears to be one useful approach.
This approach, however, has to be accompanied by thorough analyses
of the underlying reaction mechanisms and their rate constants.
These analyses are notoriously difficult, since the reactions often involve
numerous intermediates and show complex dependences on the initial
concentrations. Therefore, the development of novel experimental as well as
theoretical methodologies for the analysis of complex reaction mechanisms
is of great interest.
In the near future our group will be engaged in the following topics:
Chemical wave propagation in photosensitive reaction-diffusion systems
Interaction of chemical oscillations with gel systems (self-oscillating gels)
Mechanical deformation of gel layers in response to the formation of
Turing patterns (chemical morphogenesis)
Analysis of complex reaction mechanisms employing combinations of modern
analytical methodologies with algorithms from general systems theory
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