Research Interest

Our work is primarily in the field of “Active Matter” which is an exciting interdisciplinary research area at the intersection of chemistry, soft matter physics, and material science.

The goal is to understand the remarkable behavior of microscopic systems whose constituents convert internal or environmental energy to undergo directed motion or self-propulsion.

From the swarming of bacterial suspensions to the ATP-driven processes that guide the spatial localization of cellular organelles, active matter systems exhibit a range of incredibly complex and choreographed behaviors. Interestingly, there exists a vast experimental library of highly-engineered biological and synthetic microswimmers now exist, which are broadly referred to as active particles. A few representative examples and their unique behavior are highlighted below.

Examples of biological and synthetic active matter. Volvox algae are capable of generating complex hydrodynamic flow fields. Microtubules and light-activatable motor proteins that self-organize upon illumination. Xenobots are synthetic organisms con… — Examples of biological and synthetic active matter. Volvox algae are capable of generating complex hydrodynamic flow fields. Microtubules and light-activatable motor proteins that self-organize upon illumination. Xenobots are synthetic organisms constructed from frog embryo stem cells that can be programmed to perform a desired microscopic task. Platinum-coated Janus swimmers can self-propel in a dilute hydrogen peroxide solution to power microscopic machines.

An active particle’s ability to autonomously navigate complex microfluidic environments suggests many useful applications, including targeted drug delivery, the clean-up and neutralization of environmental pollutants, and the self-assembly of microscopic structures. Due to their unique self-driven nature, and ability to sense at a scale comparable to their size, active particles are potentially the ideal tool to manipulate matter at the colloidal scale.

To design the next generation of soft functional materials and tunable complex liquids, we need a theoretical and computational framework capable of systematically quantifying the individual and collective dynamics of synthetic and biological active matter systems.

Our mission is to understand the interplay between active, thermal, hydrodynamic, and dispersive forces that drive collective behavior. By generalizing concepts in classical statistical mechanics and liquid state theory to active systems, we can reach the stage where reliable, robust predictions useful for material or biological engineering are possible.

The theoretical tools we develop will be used in concert with computer simulation to systematically characterize the phase behavior and critical phenomena of complex active colloidal systems, especially related to the self-assembly of new colloidal materials.