Research
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Our research may be broadly classified into biophysics and soft condensed matter though a majority of our problems span the interface between the two fields.
Biology offers a rich and rewarding field for applying ideas and techniques from physics, resulting in exciting research that not only delves into the machinery of life but also enriches and advances physics. We use theoretical and computational methods from statistical mechanics and polymer physics to address issues such as cell motility, including force generation and membrane dynamics, macromolecule transport across membrane pores, cytoskeletal network dynamics, structure of biopolymer aggregates, intracellular transport, chemotaxis and drug design. More details ...
Soft Matter refers to phases of matter that have a number of accessible degrees of freedom at room temperature. They exhibit a variety of interesting features including a balance between entropy and enthalpy, sensitivity to thermal stresses and fluctuations and in many cases self-organization at mesoscopic length scales. Examples include polymers, foams, liquid crystals, colloidal systems and a number of biological systems. Our interests cover a variety of topics including colloidal dynamics, self-organization at surfaces, the geometry and dynamics of elastic sheets, transport in disordered systems and fluctuation induced forces. More details ...
Our group is affiliated with the following graduate groups:
Quantitative and Systems Biology
Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics