Slippery when Wet: How tiny particles move through complex environment

Speaker: Prof. Ashis Mukhopadhyey

Department of Physics and Astronomy, Wayne State University 

Abstract: During the 'miracle year' of 1905, Einstein also completed his thesis and wrote two papers on the topic of Brownian motion. Combined with Stoke's law, his theory can explain very well the random erratic movements of suspended particles within the water or any fluids. The Stokes-Einstein (SE) theory, however, has important limitations, which are often forgotten. With carefully selected systems, I will demonstrate that there is a ‘goldilocks’ zone, where the common wisdom break down and tiny particles can slip through fluids a thousand times faster compared to the prediction of SE theory. The results have ramification in understanding of intracellular transport, navigation of viruses through mucus, and development of self-healing plastics.s

Biography: Ph.D. Dr. Mukhopadhyay is an experimental soft matter physicist working in the areas of colloids and polymers. He earned his Ph.D. from Kansas State University in 2000 on the topic of surface critical phenomena. He did postdoctoral research on confined fluids from the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign from 2000 through 2003. He joined Wayne State University as an Assistant Professor in 2003 and was promoted to Associate professor with tenure in 2008. He has a guest appointment at Max Planck Institutes and the University of Michigan.