Alumni of the department DCF

Professors

Corinna C. Maass

was a group leader with us from 2014 to 2021. With her "Active Soft Matter" group, she studied emulsions consisting of actively propelling droplets. Research focused on their behaviour in variable micro-fluidic geometries as well as on collective swarming phenomena. Since 2021, she is Associate Professor of "Active Soft Matter" at the University of Twente in the Netherlands.
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Oliver Bäumchen

led the group "Dynamics of Fluid and Biological Interfaces" from 2013 to 2021, with which he achieved ground-breaking research results on the behavior of algae (Chlamydomonas Reinhardtii) under variable light conditions. In 2020 he was appointed the chair of experimental physics at the University of Bayreuth. more

Ranabir Dey

was with us as a PostDoc in Corinna Maass' group, studying the locomotion mechanisms of active floats in detail. Since December 2020, he is an Assistant Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, Kandi, India in the Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Department. more

Yasutaka Iwashita

spent two and a half years as PostDoc in the group of Christian Bahr, where he worked on microfluidic device based X-ray lenses and ultrathin liquid crystal films. After his return to Japan in 2009 he became Assistant Professor in the Physics Department of Kyushu University. Since 2019 he is Associate Professor of the Physics Department of Kyoto Sangyo University, Kyoto, Japan. more

Soumyajyoti Biswas

did research in our group on earthquakes, avalanches and also power grids with Statistical Physics methods. After an intermediate stay at Friedrich Alexander University in Erlangen-Nuremberg, he accepted an assistant professorship at the SRM University, Institute of Physics in Amaravati, India.

Jürgen Vollmer

performed research on the dynamics of wet granular matter and on basic principles far from equilibrium, as head of our group "Principles of Self-Organization". His work included theoretical investigations granular materials under different boundary conditions, but also the formation of precipitation based on breath figures. Since 2018, he has been a professor at the Institute of Theoretical Physics at the University of Leipzig. more

Vasily Zaburdaev

did his PostDoc Research in our group on the theoretical aspects of wet granular matter physics. After another extended stay at the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of complex systems in Dresden, he accepted a professorship at the Chair of Mathematics in the Life Sciences of the Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg.

Kai Huang

was with us from 2006-2009 as a PostDoc studying the dynamics of wet granular matter. He then moved toBayreuth University for his Habilitation and in 2018 accepted a fast tenure track associated professor position with Duke Kunshan University, Shanghai.

Marco Mazza

lead a research group on nonequilibrium soft matter from 2012 to 2018 in our department. In 2018 he accepted an offer of a lecturer position at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical Modelling at Loughborough University, UK.

Anupam Sengupta

did his PhD and a PostDoc in our group on research with liquid crystals in complex geometry. In 2018 he became a Professor at the Physics and Materials Science Research Unit of the University of Luxembourg, heading the living matter physics group.

S. Habib Ebrahimnazhad Rahbari

did his PhD with us in Jürgen Vollmer's group, started his first PostDoc position here in 2009, and developed models for wet granular matter. Since 2017, he has been an Assistant Professor at the Korea Institute for Advanced Study in Seoul, Korea. more

Marc Timme

was head of the independent Max Planck research group "Network Dynamics" at MPIDS. Subsequently, as group leader in our department, he was significantly involved in the EcoBus research project before being appointed to the Technical University of Dresden. Since 2017 he has held a strategic professorship at the Institute of Theoretical Physics, Chair of Network Dynamics.

Ciro Semprebon

worked in our group until as a post-doc on wetting phenomena in complex geometries. After further stays at the Department of Physics at Durham University (UK) and the department of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Edinburgh (UK), he joined Northumbria university in Newcastle (UK) as Vice-Chancellor fellow in the MDRT of Future Engineering in 2016.

Lucas Goehring

pursued research on pattern formation in geological systems with his research group in our department since 2011. In 2016 he accepted a professorship at Nottingham Trent University, UK.

Junaid Laskar

was doing postdoctoral research in our department on statistical mechanics in granular media for several years. He developed a novel technique to detect force chains in granular piles based on two-photon fluorescence in ruby spheres. Currently he is Assistant Professor at the SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Department of Physics and Nanotechnology in Chennai, India.

Nirmal Thyagu Natarayan

earned his PhD at IIT Madras, India. After PostDoc positions at SNBNCBS, Kolkata (India) and Rutgers University (New Jersey, USA), he joint our group working with Matthias Schröter on the study of jamming of granular solids. Since 2015 he is assistant professor at the Vellore Institute of Technology, Chennai (India) in the complex systems laboratory.

Sravanti Uppaluri

was PhD student in our group until 2012 and investigates the swimming behavior of parasites. After a PostDoc position in Princeton, USA, she accepted an Assistant Professorship at the Azim Premji University in Bangalore, India in 2015.

Shashi Thutupalli

was with us as a PhD student and postdoc on active soft matter from 2007-2012. In 2015 he moved on an assistant professorship at the National Center for Biological Sciences (NCBS) and International Center for Theoretical Sciences (ICTS) in Bangalore, India. Today he is a tenured professor at NCBS and ICTS.

Uroš Tkalec

worked with us as a postdoc in the field of nematic liquid crystals and microfluidics. In 2012 he accepted an Assistant Professorship at the faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, department of Physics of the University of Maribor (SLO) and the Jožef Stefan Institute in Slovenia.

Jean-Christophe Baret

lead the group “micro and nano structures in two phase liquids” from 2009 to 2010 before he launched his independent Max Planck research group “droplets, membranes and interfaces” at our institute. Since the end of 2013 he is professor for soft microsystems at the university Bordeaux (F) at the CRPP (Centre de Recherche Paul Pascal).

Ilenia Battiato

has been working with us on the dynamics of wet granular matter and porous media. Effective March 1st, 2012, she accepted a faculty position at Clemson Universtity South Carolina.

Gangyao Wen

joined us as a postdoc when we were still at Ulm University and was among the first members of the new department at the Max Planck intitute in Göttingen. After one more year as a postdoc in Beijing (CAS), he is now a full professor at Harbin University (China).

Sarah Köster

has been one oft the driving forces in our bio-physical projects. After a Post-doctoral stay at Harvard University (USA), she holds since 2008 a professorship at the Courant Research Center for Nano-Spectroscopy and X-Ray Imaging of the University of Göttingen.

Ralf Seemann

holds a full professorship at the University of Saarland, Saarbrücken since late 2007, while still maintaining an active research group as well at our Institute in Göttingen.

Holger Stark

left our department in 2007 for a chair for Theoretical Physics (Hess succession) at the TU Berlin.

Krishnacharya Khare

contributed to the achievements on microfluidics in our group until his PhD in 2007, before he left as a PostDoc to the University of Pennsylvania (USA). Since 2009 he is Assistant Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur, India.

Andreas Fery

has been doing pioneering research with us on scanning force microscopy of liquid surfaces. Afterwards he held a chair in Physical Chemistry at the University of Bayreuth. Since 2015 he is Professor for Physical Chemistry of Polymeric Materials at the TU Dresden and Director of the Institute for Physical Chemistry and Polymer Physics at the Leibniz-Institute of Polymer Research Dresden.

Frieder Mugele

was with the group from 1999 until 2004. He performed decisive experiments on nano-scale wetting phenomena, among others with the Surface Forces Apparatus and with electro-wetting. He now holds a chair for Physics of Complex Fluids at University of Twente (Netherlands).

Karin Jacobs

has been with us from 1997 until 2001. She performed groundbreaking experiments on dewetting and structure formation in thin liquid films. She now holds a chair for Experimental Physics at the University of Saarland, Saarbrücken.

Alumni since 2016