Principle instigator
Petia M. Vlahovska
Professor of Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics and (by courtesy) Mechanical Engineering
Current Group
Diptendu Sen
PhD student, Mechanical Engineering
Research: Droplet electrohydrodynamics
Shuozhen Zhao
PhD student, Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics
Research: membrane electrokinetics
Gonzalo Ferrandez Quinto
PhD student, Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics
Research: Active particles in soft confinement
Haley Zsoldos
PhD student, Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics
Research: Active fluids of Quincke-powered motile colloids
Leonardo Dominguez Rubio
Post-doctoral research associate
Research: Active matter
Leyun Feng
Post-doctoral research associate
Research: Electrohydrodynamics
Arthur Leite Guilherme
Visitor, PhD student in the University of Brasília
Research: dynamics ferrofluid droplets
Collaborators
Michael Miksis
ESAM, Northwestern University
Rumiana Dimova
Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Membrane Biophysics Lab
Rony Granek
Ben-Gurion University of The Negev, Israel
Alex Snezhko
Argonne National Lab
Suri Vaikuntanathan
University of Chicago
Claus-Peter Richter
Professor, Otolaryngology, Northwestern University
Chiara Sorgentone
Department of Basic and Applied Sciences for Engineering
La Sapienza, University of Rome
Former members of the group
PhD students
At Brown:
- Paul Salipante, PhD 2013 (Engineering) “Electrohydrodynamics of simple and complex interfaces”
- Hui (April) He, PhD 2014 (Physics) “Electrorotation of a viscous droplet in a uniform direct current electric field”
At Northwestern:
- Gerardo Pradillo, PhD 2020 (Mechanical Engineering) “Quincke rotors dynamics in confinement”
- Cody Reeves, PhD 2020 (Applied Mathematics) “Mathematical Models for Several Soft and Active Matter Systems”
- Hammad A. Faizi, PhD 2022 (Mechanical Engineering) “Mechanical Characterization of Biomimetic Membranes Based on Fluctuation Spectroscopy and Electrodeformation”, awarded Belytschko Outstanding Research Award
- Zhi Zhou, PhD 2023 (Applied Math) “Hydrodynamics of particles at a liquid interface” (co-advisor with Michael Miksis)
- Zhanwen Wang, PhD 2025 (Theoretical and Applied Mechanics), “Nonlinear electrohydrodynamic of colloids in confinement” (co-advisor with Michael Miksis)
- Sho Kawakami, PhD 2025 (Applied Math, Northwestern University) “Active Particles in Soft Confinement”
Post-docs
At Dartmouth:
- James Hanna, 2009 (surfactant effects on drop dynamics in Poiseuille flow)
At Brown:
- Jacopo Seiwert, 10/2010-03/2012 (membrane stability, tension induced phase transitions in biomimetic membranes
- Tatiana Kuriabova 09/2011- 08/2013 (mechanics of charged membranes)
- Malika Ouriemi 01/2013-03/2014(electrohydrodynamics of complex interfaces)
- Enkeleida Lushi 09/2013 – 08/2016 (rheology of active suspensions)
- Nico Fricke 02/2014- 07/2015(electromechanics of bilayer membranes)
- Nicolas Galle, 11/2014- 04/2017 (vesicles and capsule mechanics)
- Quentin Brosseau, 10/2014- 10/ 2016 (microfluidics of drops, electrohydrodynamics)
At Northwestern University
- Jeremy Koch, 09/2017- 08/2019(electrohydrodynamics)
- Hamid Karani, 01/2018- 04/2020 (active matter)
- Gasper Kokot, 01/2019-01/2020 (active matter) joint with Argonne National Lab through NAISE
- Bhavya Balu, 09/2021-03/2022 (electrokinetics)
- Bo Zhang, 10/01/2022-07/2023 (active matter) joint with Argonne National Lab through NAISE
- Rodrigo Reboucas, 09/01/2021-08/14/2023 (membranes)
- Rui Luo, 09/2022–08/2025 (active matter, living fluids of active colloids)
- Bo Zhang 10/2022–08/2023 (bacteria-mimicking active particles) joint with Argonne National Lab
- Simon Fabiunke 01/2023-12/2024 (phase transitions in biomimetic membranes)