Post-doctoral Fellow

Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
9 Memorial Drive, Room 1N124
Bethesda, MD 20892
Telephone: 301-435-5803
Email: rappaportsm@mail.nih.gov

Personal statement:

As a physicist, I am mostly interested in the possibilities and limitations of modeling of biological systems. The complexity of biology can hardly be overestimated, and it is a great challenge to find the proper ways of using the fundamental language of physics and mathematics to describe such systems without losing the essence. Thermodynamics, elasticity, differential geometry, topology, and other symmetry considerations are my main tools. My wish is not just to solve biology-inspired physical problems but to find ways to improve our understanding of the subjects of interest.

Biosketch:

Dr. Shay M. Rappaport is a postdoctoral fellow at the Section of Molecular Transport, Program of Physical Biology, NICHD/NIH since 2010. Dr. Rappaport has received his Ph.D. (direct program) in Physics from Bar-Ilan University, Israel. In his Ph.D. project, Dr. Rappaport developed and investigated theoretical models associated with DNA, protein binding DNA, and aromatic molecules, based on Differential Geometry and Topology of curves and ribbons. During 2010-2012, Dr. Rappaport participated in a joint project of PPB and CNRM (Center for Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine), investigating the mechanism of blast-induced traumatic brain injury as well as other sound-induced bio-effects. Developing of the thermodynamics of intra-membrane cavitation is one of his main contributions to this field. Dr. Rappaport is an ad hoc reviewer of Physical Review Letters and Biophysical Journal.