Graduate Student Seminar
March 28, 2025
10:00 a.m. ET
McConomy Auditorium, First Floor Cohon University Center
Deciphering microscopic mechanisms driving assembly and flow of soft materials
Soft materials such as colloidal dispersions, polymers, emulsions, and biological macromolecules are ubiquitous in the natural world. Recent experimental advances have led to the fabrication of soft-matter-based nanostructures that can switch shape, assembly, and flow behavior in response to changes in their chemical or mechanical environment, opening pathways for novel medical, energy, catalysis, and automotive applications. This talk describes our work employing molecular dynamics simulations to understand the microscopic mechanisms that drive structure and property control in soft materials. We will explore: a shape-design mechanism in flexible polymeric nanoparticles based on tuning their surface charge patterns, a cooperative encapsulation process that drives ligand- and peptide-functionalized cargo in protein nanocages, and a salt dialysis approach to self-assemble multilayered and ordered core-shell arrays starting from a one-pot mixture of virus-like nanoparticles. Finally, we will discuss the shear thinning of alkane-based machine lubricants at high strain rates and pressures, demonstrating its origins lie in thermally activated molecular rearrangements rather than evolution in molecular order.
Vikram Jadhao
Associate Chair, Intelligent Systems Engineering
Associate Professor of Intelligent Systems Engineering
Indiana University, Bloomington
Vikram Jadhao is an associate professor of Intelligent Systems Engineering at Indiana University in Bloomington. He received his B.S. in Physics from the Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur, and his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He conducted postdoctoral research in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University as well as the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Johns Hopkins University. His research explores the underlying microscopic mechanisms that give rise to the macroscopic properties of soft materials.
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February 14 2025
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February 21 2025
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McConomy Auditorium, First Floor Cohon University Center
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February 28 2025
10:00 AM ET
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Extreme mechanics and manufacturing of materials across scales, presented by Yu Zou, University of Toronto
McConomy Auditorium, First Floor Cohon University Center
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March 14 2025
10:00 AM ET
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A Journey from Atoms to Materials: Computationally-Guided Discovery and Design of Functional Materials, presented by Prashun Gorai, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
McConomy Auditorium, First Floor Cohon University Center
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March 21 2025
10:00 AM ET
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Thermophysical and Thermochemical Properties of Transition Metal Diborides up to and above 3000 degrees, presented by Scott J. McCormack, University of California, Davis
McConomy Auditorium, First Floor Cohon University Center