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Cornell University

Laboratory of Soft and Living Materials

Prof. Eric R. Dufresne

People

The Group

Principal Investigator

photo of Eric DufresneEric Dufresne

Eric joined the Cornell faculty in the summer 2023.  He is a professor in the departments of Physics and Materials Sciences and Engineering, and a member of the field of Biophysics.  Previously, he was a professor at ETH Zürich and Yale University.  Eric is a fellow of the American Physical Society and a member of the editorial board of Physical Review X.

 

 

Postdocs

photo of Teagan BateTeagan Bate

tb579@cornell.edu

Teagan studied the control of microtubule kinesin active fluid during his PhD work at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts. He joined the lab in August of 2023. Now he studies the physics of bimolecular condensates, with a focus on in-vitro experiments.

 

 

SenthilSenthilkumar Duraivel
sd989@cornell.edu
Senthil got his PhD in Materials Engineering at University of Florida, specializing in soft matter additive manufacturing. He joined the lab in March 2024 and he is interested in engineering bicontinuous materials using elastic microphase separation.

 

 

 

Takumi Matsuzawa
tm688@cornell.edu

Takumi earned his PhD in Physics from the University of Chicago in 2023, specializing in turbulence and complex fluids. He joined the lab in September of 2023. He currently studies the dynamics of phase-separated droplets.

 

 

 

 

Nan Xue

nx47@cornell.edu

Nan studied mechanical engineering (especially, fluid mechanics) at Tsinghua (BS, 2015, China) and Princeton (PhD, 2021). Before moving with the lab to Cornell in 2023, he worked (in the lab at ETH, Zurich, Switzerland) on the fracture mechanics of elastomers.

 

PhD Students

photo of Kaarthik VarmaKaarthik Varma

kv244@cornell.edu

Kaarthik is a PhD student in Physics. He is from India and got his Bachelors and Masters degree from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He is interested in studying the physics and applications of swimming droplets.

 

 

Sully Bailey-Darland

srb338@cornell.edu

Sully is a PhD student in Physics. He graduated from Oregon State University in 2023 with a degree in physics and mathematics, and is currently working on differential dynamic microscopy and X-ray scattering on phase-separated solutions.

 

 

Jen Jang

wj93@cornell.edu

Jen is a PhD student in Physics, originally from Korea, she got her bachelor’s degree at the University of Chicago. She is currently working on microrheology projects.

 

 

 

 

Ethan

Ethan O’Banion

eeo8@cornell.edu

Ethan is a PhD student in Materials Science. He graduated from Purdue University in 2024 with a bachelor’s degree in Materials Science & Engineering. He is interested in learning about the biological and physical chemistry of soft materials’ systems.

 

 

 

Katia

Katherine (Katia) Larina

kl2225@cornell.edu

Katia is a PhD student in Physics. Previously, she earned her B.S. in Physics from the University of California, Santa Barbara (2024). She currently studies the physics of swimming biomolecular condensates.

 

 

Master’s Students

Currently, there are no master’s students in the lab.

Bachelor’s Students

Gabriella Bensadoun

gpb52@cornell.edu

Gabriella is an undergraduate student pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Physics. She has a broad interest in experimental biophysics and is currently studying yeast growth in phase-separated droplets.

 

 

Jay in the wild

Jay Fu

jgf86@cornell.edu

Jay is an undergraduate student majoring in Materials Science and Engineering. He studies a polymer-induced elastic microphase separation (PI-EMPS), specifically how swelling process alters the resulting morphologies.

 

 

Anika Jonelagadda

aj476@cornell.edu

Anika is a senior undergraduate studying Materials Science and Engineering. She is studying the phase separation of liquid crystal solutions.

 

 

Visiting Scientists

Dr. Wanliang Shan

ws542@cornell.edu

Wanliang is an Associate Professor at Syracuse University and an entrepreneur. His expertise spans soft matter physics and bio-inspired design, with a particular focus on soft robotics and tunable adhesion.

 

 

Charlotta Lorenz

cml353@cornell.edu

After her PhD in Physics at the University of Göttingen, Germany, specializing on the interactions of cytoskeletal biopolymers (2021), she joined the lab at ETH Zürich in 2022. She is now a Visiting Scientist in our group at Cornell and associated with Prof Benjamin Schuler’s group at the University of Zürich. She is interested in the structure of biomolecular condensates studied with X-rays.

Former Lab Visitors and Students

Former Members from Laboratory of Soft and Living Materials (ETH Zürich)

  • Dr. Stefanie Heyden (Group Leader, 2016 – 2023).

  • Dr. Robert Style (Group Leader, 2016 – 2023).

  • Dr. Maria Feofilova (Postdoc, Jul 2017 – Jun 2023), Project Leader at Sensirion.

  • Dr. Carla Fernández-Rico (Postdoc, 2021 – Jun 2023), SNSF Ambizione Group Leader at ETH Zürich.

  • Dr. Katrina Smith-Mannschott (PhD Student, Sep 2016 – Aug 2024).

  • Dr. Etienne Jambon-Puillet (Postdoc, Feb 2022 – Jan 2023), CNRS Researcher at LadHyX (École Polytechnique).

  • Dr. Alexandre Torzynski (PhD Student, Oct 2017 – Jun 2023), Innovation Engineer at Ovivo.
  • Yanxia Feng (PhD Student, Nov 2021 – Jun 2023), continuing PhD studies at ETH Zürich.

  • Gianna Wolfisberg (PhD Student, 2021 – Jun 2023), continuing PhD studies at ETH Zürich.

  • Dr. Kathryn Anne Rosowski (Postdoc, 2016 – 2022; Senior Scientist, 2023), Senior Scientist at Roche.

  • Dr. Dominic Gerber (PhD Student, Nov 2019 – Sep 2023), R&D Engineer at ECO PHYSICS AG.

  • Dr. Aleksander Rebane (Postdoc, May 2020 – Dec 2022), Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Physics at New York University Abu Dhabi.

  • Dr. Nicolas Bain (Postdoc, Feb 2019 – Dec 2022), CNRS Researcher at Institut Lumière Matière.

  • Dr. Tianqi Sai (PhD Student, Sep 2018 – Dec 2022), pursuing Fine Arts in Hong Kong.

  • Dr. Alba Sicher (PhD Student, Oct 2017 – Dec 2022), Development Specialist (R&D) at Climeworks.

  • Dr. Tom Böddeker (PhD Student, Aug 2018 – Dec 2022), Postdoc in the laboratory of Prof. Satoshi Sawai at the University of Tokyo.

  • Dr. Andrea Testa (PhD Student, Oct 2017 – Jul 2022), Product Manager at Sensirion.

  • Dr. Hendrik Spanke (PhD Student, Sep 2016 – Jul 2022), Product Engineer at Dyconex.

  • Dr. Mahdiye Ijavi (PhD Student, Sep 2016 – Dec 2021).

  • Dr. Yasir Mohammad (Postdoc, Aug 2020 – Aug 2021), Postdoctoral Fellow at Carnegie Mellon University.

  • Dr. Guido Panzarasa (Postdoc, Mar 2018 – May 2020), Group Leader of Active and Adaptive Wood Materials at D-BAUG, ETH Zürich.

  • Dr. Paolo Testa (PhD Student in collaboration with Mesoscopic Systems Laboratory, Apr 2017 – Jul 2020), R&D Engineer at Exaddon.

  • Dr. Qin Xu (Postdoc, Oct 2016 – Feb 2020), Assistant Professor at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

  • Dr. Claire François-Martin (Postdoc, Jan 2017 – Feb 2019), Postdoctoral Fellow at the Psychiatric and Neuroscience Institute in Paris.

  • Dr. Katharine E. Jensen (Postdoc, Oct 2016 – Aug 2017), Assistant Professor of Physics at Williams College.

Former Members from Soft Matter Lab (Yale)

  • Dr. Vincent Germain.
  • Dr. Sunil Sainis, now at EInk.
  • Dr. Marleen van der Veen, now at IMEC, Belgium.
  • Dr. Wilfried Engl
  • Dr. Holger Kress (Spring 2007 – Spring 2010), now at University of Bayreuth.
  • Dr. Chris MacMinn, now at Oxford.
  • Dr. Aric Sanders, now at NIST Boulder.
  • Dr. Sara Hashmi, now at Yale Chemical Engineering.
  • Dr. Jason W. Merrill, now at Desmos, Inc.
  • Dr. Alla Shundrovsky (Fall 2007 – Summer 2010), now at Ion Torrent.
  • Dr. JinGyu Park (Fall 2007 – Fall 2010), now at EInk.
  • Dr. Guy German (Spring 2010 – Fall 2012), now at Binghamton University.
  • Dr. Jason Forster.
  • Dr. Ye Xu, now at Beihang University.
  • Dr. Cecile Mejean, now at St. Gobain.
  • Dr. Aaron Mertz, now at Aspen Institute.
  • Dr. Callen Hyland, now at USD.