Theoretical and computational soft matter — active suspensions, complex fluids, electrokinetics, mesoscale simulation.
From bacterial baths to artificial microswimmers — energy injected at the particle scale produces flows, defects and pattern formation at the macroscale. We work on kinetic theories for dense active suspensions and the limits of mean-field descriptions.
Capillary spreading, viscous fingering, charged interfaces, the rheology of red blood cells in confinement, and the slow relaxation of dense colloidal glasses — soft media where geometry and dynamics are inseparable.
Closing the gap between particle physics and continuum hydrodynamics requires methods that are correct in both limits. We develop and apply lattice-Boltzmann methods, dissipative particle dynamics and stochastic-rotation dynamics for soft matter.
The group studies systems of many interacting components — colloids, polymers, microswimmers, complex fluids — that organise themselves far from thermal equilibrium. The questions concern the emergent phenomenology rather than the average: when does motility induce phase separation? how do hydrodynamic interactions reshape collective swimming? what fixes the rheology of dense active suspensions?
From bacterial suspensions to artificial microswimmers, energy is injected at the particle scale and re-emerges, after many interactions, as macroscopic flows, defects and patterns. We work on the kinetic theories that describe these regimes, the limits of mean-field descriptions, and the interplay between motility and hydrodynamics.
Capillary spreading, viscous fingering, charged interfaces, electrokinetic flow at micro- and nano-scales, the rheology of red blood cells in confinement, the slow relaxation of dense colloidal glasses — these are the fluids whose responses depend as much on geometry as on dynamics.
Closing the gap between particle physics and continuum hydrodynamics requires algorithms that are correct in both limits. We develop and apply lattice-Boltzmann methods, dissipative particle dynamics, and stochastic-rotation dynamics for soft matter — and we work on the kinetic theory that justifies them.
Prospective PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, and collaborators in adjacent areas are welcome year-round. A short statement of interest and a CV are the only starting requirements.