We are a theoretical research group in the Chemical Engineering Department at UT Austin. We broadly focus on understanding various soft and living matter systems over many length and time scales. In doing so, a motivating question arises: How do microscopic interactions lead to emergent physics at mesoscopic or macroscopic scales?

To address this question, we bring together ideas from engineering, physics, computer science, and applied mathematics. For example:

• We use statistical mechanical methods to describe equilibrium and non-equilibrium behavior over microscopic scales
• Our findings inform the continuum mechanical descriptions of these same systems
• If classical techniques are intractable, we employ physics-based machine learning methods—which we require to satisfy the known physical laws governing the system of interest
  

Joining the Lab

We frequently draw from the fields of continuum mechanics (fluid and solid mechanics), transport phenomena, thermodynamics, statistical physics, and electrodynamics. In doing so, we formulate analytical theories and employ numerical methods—for example, the finite element method and molecular dynamics simulations. We also develop physics-based machine learning methods that satisfy the appropriate balance laws and associated governing equations.

We are actively seeking scientists and engineers who are interested in our research program:

• Graduate Students
  • Admitted students: please email Amaresh to schedule a meeting
  • Prospective students: please apply online to ChemE @ UT Austin [more info]
• Postdoctoral Scholars
  Please email Amaresh with your CV, research interests, and favorite preprint/publication
• Undergraduate Students @ UT
  If you enjoyed taking classes on some of the aforementioned topics, please email Amaresh with your unofficial transcript and a brief summary of your research interests
  • Prior research experience is not required: we are looking for students who enjoy thinking deeply and carefully about science