Research Projects
Understanding the dynamics of membrane-bound vesicles is a crucial step for developing effective delivery agents and long-term stability of personal care products. I have directly studied the conformational dynamics of lipid vesicles using fluorescence microscopy and a new technique called the Stokes trap. For the first time, I identified new modes of vesicle shape relaxation for highly deformed vesicles in the nonlinear regime. In addition, my work has explored vesicle mechanical properties by directly observing vesicle conformations and shape dynamics in flow such as vesicle wrinkling and buckling.
Vesicle stretching and nonlinear dynamics in flow
Automated flow control for vesicle dynamics
In my Ph.D., I developed a new automated flow control device that uses nonlinear predictive control and image processing to effectively control the center-of-mass position, orientation and trajectories of single and multiple microparticles using only fluid flow. The automated flow control device allows precise investigation of dynamics of soft materials such as drops, vesicles and polymers in flow.
