Research Areas

Polymer Physics and Rheology

We are learning how dilute and entangled polymers change their configurations under flow, and we are doing this by using single-molecule imaging combined with molecular simulations. The goal is to be able to predict how molecular weight and long-chain branching affect flow properties. In particular, controlling long-chain branching to improve polymer processing is of great importance to the polymer industry.

	Xue Chen xuec@umich.edu PhD Candidate		Indranil Saha Dalal indrasd@umich.edu PhD Candidate		Zuowei Wang wangzw@umich.edu Post-Doctorial Fellow
	Nobuhiko Watari nobuhiko@umich.edu PhD Candidate

Surfactant and Lipid Simulation

We are using molecular dynamics simulation to study phase and structural transitions in lipid monolayers and bilayers. We are also studying interactions occuring in aqueous solutions of surfactant micelles and mixtures of micelles with nonionic water-soluble polymers.

	Susan Duncan suziq@umich.edu PhD Candidate		Indranil Saha Dalal indrasd@umich.edu PhD Candidate		Zuowei Wang wangzw@umich.edu Post-Doctorial Fellow

Micro-Fabricated Devices for Virus Indentification

This research is focused on developing a portable, low-cost microfluidic device for pathogen identification.

	Zhicheng Long zclong@umich.edu Post-Doctorial Fellow

Fluid Mechanics and Brownian Dynamics

The goal of this research is to understand and predict the motion of a deformable object, such as a polymer molecule or a deformable cell, under an external field by means of computer simulation.

	Nobuhiko Watari nobuhiko@umich.edu PhD Candidate