Harnessing evaporation energy

Hydration solids – physics of biological matter

Adaptive flexibility of bacterial spore coats

Intramolecular imaging with atomic force microscopy

Understanding intracellular forces

Selected Publications

“Hydration solids” Nature (2023).

“Cellular nanoscale stiffness patterns governed by intracellular forces” Nature Materials (2019).

“Scaling up nanoscale water-driven energy conversion into evaporation-driven engines and generators” Nature Communications (2015).

“Potential for natural evaporation as a reliable renewable energy resource” Nature Communications (2017).

“Bacillus spores as building blocks for stimuli-responsive materials and nanogenerators” Nature Nanotechnology (2014).

Research

Biology is the intellectual frontier of physics! We investigate biological systems that function under physical extremes such as short timescales, confinement to nanoscale regions of space, and high mechanical forces. We seek to understand the resulting phenomena and apply those insights to medical, environmental, and energy-related problems.