Focus

Soft and living matter systems: theory, simulation, and machine learning.

Research

Our theoretical research group brings together ideas from chemical engineering, physics, computer science, and applied mathematics to understand soft and living matter systems. We frequently draw from the fields of continuum mechanics (fluid and solid mechanics), transport phenomena, statistical mechanics, irreversible thermodynamics, and electrodynamics. In doing so, we formulate analytical theories and employ numerical methods—for example, the finite element method and molecular dynamics simulations. We also develop physics-based machine learning methods that satisfy the appropriate balance laws and associated governing equations.

We are currently broadly focused on understanding various systems over many length and time scales. In doing so, a motivating question arises: How do microscopic interactions lead to emergent physics at mesoscopic or macroscopic scales? To address this question, we bring together ideas from many disciplines. For example:

• We use statistical mechanical methods to describe equilibrium and non-equilibrium behavior over microscopic scales
• Our findings inform the continuum mechanical descriptions of these same systems
• If classical techniques are intractable, we employ physics-based machine learning methods—which we require to satisfy the known physical laws governing the system of interest

Selected Publications

• Irreversible Thermodynamics and Hydrodynamics of Biological Membranes[pdf]
• Absolute vs convective instabilities and front propagation in lipid membrane tubes[pdf] [doi] [arXiv]
• Active contact forces drive non-equilibrium fluctuations in membrane vesicles[pdf][doi] [arXiv]
• Geometry and dynamics of lipid membranes: The Scriven–Love number[pdf][doi] [arXiv]
• A full list of publications can be found here.