Seminars

Abstract: Although we teach our students mostly about Newtonian fluids most of the fluids that we meet in real life e.g. Mumbai road after monsoon rains are complex fluids. A model of complex fluids is objects (often spheres) immersed in a Newtonian fluid. We numerically solve this model to calculate rheology at moderate strain-rates and volume-fraction (occupied by the immersed objects) for three different cases : (a) rigid spheres immersed in a plane Couette flow[1]; (b) rigid spheres confined within thin (a few sphere-diameters) channel[2] (c) soft spheres in plane Couette flows[3].

Abstract: Reliable models play a key role in the analysis, monitoring, control and optimization of chemical reaction systems. However, reliable modeling of reaction and mass-transfer phenomena is particularly challenging due to the coupling of reaction and transport phenomena. This talk introduces novel tool that facilitates the modeling and the analysis of open homogeneous and heterogeneous reaction systems.

Abstract: In the past several years, there has been considerable experimental evidence that magnetic fields coupled with cellular or cell-associated magnetic nanoparticles can drive the gating (opening) of ion channels in mammalian cells and *in vivo*. This gating can then be used to couple ion entry into the cells with downstream gene expression leading to production of proteins of interest as well as regulation of cell function all in a temporal manner.

Abstract:Biomedical micro and nanotechnology have attracted a wide range of materials and nanostructures for their potential application in regenerative therapies, drug delivery, tissue mending and so on. Among those, biomaterials such as porous scaffolds and surgical tissue glues (bioadhesives), novel nanomedicines have shown highest clinical importance in the field. In this talk, I will cover some of our recent developments and challenges in the field. The overall structure of the talk will follow few subheadings. 1. Porous scaffolds are exclusively used in tissue regeneration.

Abstract:Poly(L-lactide) (PLLA) is the structural material of the first clinically-approved bioresorbable vascular scaffold (BVS), a promising alternative to permanent metal stents for treatment of coronary heart disease. BVSs are transient implants that support the occluded artery for 6 mo and are completely resorbed in 2 yr, leaving behind a regenerated artery. Clinical trials of BVSs report restoration of arterial vasomotion and elimination of serious complications of metal stents that occur 5 to 7 yr after implantation.

Abstract: Complex molecules from crude oil, such as asphaltenes, may cause several difficulties in oil recovery and oil spills because they can adsorb onto oil/water interfaces where they create a viscoelastic network. This causes not only a stabilization of the oil/water emulsion, but has also been observed to cause the spontaneous formation of micron-sized droplets near the oil/water interface.

Abstract: In this talk, I will start by outlining the different research themes that I have been working on. First, I am going to briefly summarize my contributions in understanding self-assembly of anisotropic objects into ordered structures and in bypassing dynamical sluggishness to access low temperature "glassy" states. Next, I will move on to the main part of my talk about the thermodynamics and kinetics of gas separation in some porous crystalline materials, namely Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs).

Abstract: Processes that span multiple length scales and timescales are common in nature, and this multiscale nature often limits our knowledge of many biological systems. Systematic models based on a strong basis often serve as powerful tools to probe such systems for aspects that lie outside the current experimental limits, and complement our understanding of these systems.

Abstract: Concerted efforts in the past decade have demonstrated the viability of spray-drying techniques to produce useful nanoparticles for drug delivery applications. Specific studies carried out in respect of the dependence of particle size and morphology on the system parameters have shown unexpected relationships. Besides, the studies have paved a way to perform an in-situ determination of the critical supersaturation solubility for the drug-solvent systems of interest.

Abstract: Recent advances in particles synthesis lead to the fabrication of nanometer-to-micrometer sized particles that can interacts each other via patches having anisotropic interactions. These particles are called ‘Patchy colloids’. In this talk I discuss how the patchy interactions lead to a non-equilibrium phase transitions observed in well-known surface growth models like ballistic deposition (BD) and diffusion-limited aggregation (DLA). Moreover, we identify that such phase transition belong to the well-known directed percolation (DP) universality class.