Francisco Melo Hurtado

Dr. Francisco Melo is an Associate Professor at the University of Santiago. His research areas are Nonlinear Physics, Soft and Fragile Matter. At the beginning of his scientific career, he carried out pioneering experiments on the collective behaviour of the particle system and furthermore contributed to the understanding of the wrinkling, folding and fracture of various materials, including thin films for protection, foams and cohesive granular materials. He has carried out studies on granular flows in underground mining and worked on various problems related to avalanches and catastrophic natural phenomena. In recent years, he has begun investigation of the mechanical properties of biomolecules, bilipid membranes and the growth of biomaterials by using atomic force microscopy techniques. He is an expert in the characterization of surface interactions by means of atomic scanning techniques. Also, he has initiated research in the area of individual molecules by using magnetic tweezers and microcantilevers as molecular force sensors. He is currently studying to what extent the action of forces in the pN range correlates with disruption or conformational changes in macromolecules, including DNA and proteins, combining force spectroscopy with spectral methods (fluorescence and increased Raman).

In 1997, he was awarded the Presidential Chair in Science by the President of Chile and the commission made up of Nobel laureates in Physics David Gross and Chemistry Rudolph A. Marcus.

He worked at various European institutions as a Visiting Professor. He has been a visiting professor invited at several european institutions.

In 2021 he was appointed a member of the Latin American Academy of Sciences.