Harishankar Manikantan
University of California-Davis, CA·Engineering·Early-career
Many important particles live in the thin boundary between two fluids rather than in open liquid. Proteins drift in cell membranes, pollutant particles land on the fluid lining the lungs, and engineered drug carriers mimic cell surfaces.
- Fields
Engineering
Biophysics
Materials Science
- Topics
fluid mechanics
hydrodynamic interactions
interfacial hydrodynamics
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jan 2029
What they work on
- Use asymptotic theory to calculate hydrodynamic interactions between pairs of particles in realistic non-Newtonian interfaces, including membranes and monolayers whose resistance to flow changes with deformation.
- Develop efficient computational methods that capture large-scale surface hydrodynamics in crowded membranes and monolayers containing many interacting particles.
- Extend analytical and numerical tools to complex particles, including active molecular motors, self-propelled interfacial colloids, deformable membrane anchors and synthetic nanorods, and to complex system geometries.
- Build mesoscopic mean-field models describing the average behavior of many particles to explore large-scale structure, stability and pattern formation in active and passive interfacial assemblies.
More about the research
As these particles move, they push the surrounding interface fluid, and that flow tugs on their neighbors. These hydrodynamic interactions shape how crowds of particles organize. The motion of a single passive particle in a simple fluid interface is well understood. However, there is no rigorous framework for crowded membranes and monolayers (single-molecule-thick layers) with realistic conditions.
Why it matters
Models of how particles cluster in membranes and fluid interfaces could guide the design of self-assembled materials on lipid bilayers, monolayers, biofilms and polymer membranes. They could also improve understanding of protein motion in cell membranes and particulate matter on lung linings, and inform the design of synthetic drug delivery carriers that mimic natural cells.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
On Shun Pak
Santa Clara University, CA·Engineering
Use robophysical models, robots that mimic swimming bacteria, together with theory to determine how non-Newtonian fluid behaviors such as shear thinning or elasticity change bacterial swimming.
Jonathan Rothstein
University of Massachusetts, MA·Engineering
Measure how self-propelled Marangoni surfers move on levitating spherical water drops in microgravity aboard the International Space Station, focusing on how the drop's overall curvature changes their propulsion.
Bhuvnesh Bharti
Louisiana State University, LA·Engineering·Early-career
Use large-scale simulations of coupled magnetic, hydrodynamic and contact interactions, plus analytical theory, to derive design rules for how micron-scale magnetic colloids aggregate and move cooperatively in porous media and open three-dimensional fluids.
The school
University of California-Davis: 49 labs on PI Pages, $1.0B a year on research, 647 research doctorates a year.
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