(6ff) Designer Soft Matter: From Passive to Active to Biomimetics

Designing the dynamical and the structural properties of soft matter systems across different length scales is the central theme for a wide range of multidiscipline research fields from chemical engineering to condensed matter to biophysics. My research expertise lies at the interface between the physicochemical manipulation of soft matter systems (i.e., artificial microswimmers, lipid bilayers, passive colloids, (bio-)polymers, and emulsions), and the fabrication of novel and advanced functional materials with desired properties. It is my ambition to set up an independent research group that bridges chemical engineering, materials science, physics, and biology. The research focus will be to gain a fundamental understanding of the underlying governing principles involved in non-equilibrium systems using model systems:

1. dynamic self-organization of living systems,
2. bottom-up biology-how the cell membrane responds to highly localized forces from within, such as those exerted by cytoskeletal activity (i.e., microtubules, and actin filaments), and how these local forces translate into complex cell shapes,
3. hierarchicalself-assembly of passive systems.

I will first address these challenging problems using state-of-art soft matter model systems, namely active and passive colloids, and biomimetic systems, in combination with my expertise in design and synthesis of novel colloids, and vesicles of lipid bilayers, microfluidics, directed self-assembly, rheology, and real space characterization tools.

Building upon on this fundamental understanding and careful engineering of physiochemical properties of building blocks together with tailor-made interaction potentials between them would pave a way to developing unconventional materials with functionalities of living matter, and nature-inspired materials. I will specifically focus on engineering the responsive, self-healing materials, sculpting gels within, photonic bandgap at visible wavelengths, and transporting cargo to desired targets.

Selected Publications:

1. R. Vutukuri, J. Vermant, et al., Sculpting vesicles with active particles: Less is more, under review in Science.
2. R. Vutukuri, J. Vermant, et al., Light-switchable active particles: Fast and reversible fusion and fission, submitted.
3. R. Vutukuri, et al., Rational design and dynamics of self-propelled colloidal bead chains: from rotators to flagella,Scientific Reports, 7, 16758 (2017).
4. R. Vutukuri, A. van Blaaderen, et al., Directed self-assembly of micron-sized gold nanoplaelets into oriented flexible stacks with tunable interpolate distance, NanoLetters, 15, 5617 (2015).
5. R. Vutukuri, A. F. Demirörs, B. Peng, P. D. J. van Oostrum, A. Imhof, and A. van Blaaderen; Colloidal analogues of charged and uncharged polymer chains with tunable stiffness, Angewandte Chemie Int. Ed. 51, 11249 (2012).
6. E. Leunissen, H. R. Vutukuri, and A. van Blaaderen; Directing colloidal self- assembly with biaxial electric fields, Advanced Materials21, 3116 (2009).

https://scholar.google.ch/citations?hl=en&user=ZGWfEWoAAAAJ&view_op=list_works

Funding:

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Research Fellowship, European Research Council (ERC), 250 k$.

Marie-Curie Research Fellow Mentor: Prof. dr. Jan Vermant, ETH Zürich, Switzerland

PhD Supervisor: Prof. dr. Alfons van Blaaderen, Utrecht University, The Netherlands

Teaching Interests:

I believe that teaching is an important component of an academic career. As a researcher, I am motivated not only by the pleasure of finding things out, but also explaining them to others. Since I first began to tutor classmates and junior students in high school, teaching has been an important part of my life.

I have extensive teaching experience in a range of environments. I have always enjoyed working with students. During my bachelors and master’s studies, I taught and assisted several chemical engineering courses, including Chemical Reaction Engineering, Transport Phenomena, Thermodynamics, Statistical Mechanics, and Fluid Mechanics. While I was at the Utrecht University, The Netherlands, as a PhD student, I assisted in lecturing courses on Advanced Soft Condensed Matter Physics and Physics of Fluids. I have continued my teaching duties and involving in developing class projects for the Soft Materials course at ETH Zürich, Switzerland.

Courses I can teach:

My interdisciplinary research background has prepared me to teach courses in many areas. I would be enthusiastic to teach traditional and inter-disciplinary courses like Chemical Reaction Engg, Transport Phenomena, Thermodynamics, Statistical Mechanics, Fluid Mechanics, Soft Condensed Matter at the Bachelor’s and Master’s level programs in the department, but not limited to those courses. Additionaly, I would enjoy bringing new approaches to the teaching of existing courses.