News

Spring 2024

  • Feb 2024: Graduate student Nikhil Sethia passed his final PhD defense, with thesis entitled "Microfluidics to improve transplantation and cryopreservation of pancreatic islets and stem cell-derived β cell clusters". Congratulations Dr. Sethia!  
  • Feb 2024: First year Material Science and Engineering PhD student Homayra Tabassum Mumu has joined the Dutcher Lab.  Homayra will be primarily advised by Prof. Oggy Ilic, and work on particle-wave interactions at the microscale.  Welcome Homayra! 
  • Jan 2024: Graduate student Nikhil Sethia's paper "On chip sorting of stem cell-derived β cell clusters using traveling surface acoustic waves" was just accepted by Langmuir.  The manuscript was submitted in response to an invitation to be a part of a special issue for “2023 Pioneers in Applied and Fundamental Interfacial Chemistry (PAFICs): Janet A. W. Elliott”.  Nikhil led this collaborative effort with the Bischof group in Mechanical Engineering, Finger group in the Department of Surgery, as well as researchers in the Department of Physiology and Biomedical Eng at Mayo Clinic.  Congrats, Nikhil!

Fall 2023

  • Dec 2023:  Graduate student Iaroslav Makhnenko has accepted a position as LTD Module and Integration Yield Engineer at Intel, starting summer 2024.  Congrats Iaroslav!  
  • Nov 2023:  Graduate student Nikhil Sethia has accepted a position as Sr. Engineer at Seagate Technology, starting spring 2024.  Congrats Nikhil!  
  • Nov 2023:  We are excited to welcome 1st year mechanical engineering PhD student Musarrat Makhnun and 1st year chemical engineering and materials science PhD student Pragnya Chatterjee to our group.  Welcome Musarrat and Pragnya!
  • Oct 2023:  Graduate student Iaroslav Makhnenko paper entitled "Spray droplet sizes from aqueous liquid sheets containing soluble surfactants and emulsified oils" was just accepted by Atomization and Sprays, in collaboration with researchers from Hogan Group (UMN) and at Winfield United.  Congrats All!  
  • Oct 2023:  Graduate student Nikhil Sethia won 1st place in the Medical Devices theme for his poster entitled, "Image recognition based high throughput sorting of particles in microscale flows" at the 2023 IEM Annual Conference Poster Competition held on Tuesday, September 26, 2023 at the McNamara Alumni Center.  The award comes with a certificate and a cash prize.  Congrats Nikhil! 
  • Sept 2023:  Graduate students Rana Bachnak and Chinmayee Panigrahi's paper entitled "The effect of surface interactions on the coalescence of water droplets in fuel" was just accepted by Energy and Fuels, in collaboration with researchers from Donaldson Company.  Congrats All!  

Summer 2023

  • Aug 2023:  Undergraduate student Keiona Williams presented a poster entitled "Investigating Inorganic Ice Nucleating Particles using Microfluidic Platforms" at the ME^3 Poster Show and the Summer Undergraduate Research Expo (SURE) Poster Show.  Great work, Keiona!
  • June 2023:  Graduate student Maggie House's paper "Microfluidic platform for coupled studies of freezing behavior and final efflorescence particle morphology in Snomax containing aqueous droplets" has recently been accepted for publication in Aerosol Science & Technology, as a part of a special issue on Aerosol Physical Chemistry.  Congrats Maggie!
  • June 2023:  Graduate student Shu Yang's paper "Instability and rupture of surfactant-laden bilayer thin liquid films", in collaboration with Prof. Satish Kumar, has recently been accepted for publication in Soft Matter. Congrats Shu!
  • June 2023:  We are excited to welcome Keiona Williams this summer, as a part of the NSF CAICE Summer Undergraduate Research Program.  Welcome Keiona!  

Spring 2023

  • March 2023:  Graduate student Meenal Rathi passed her CEMS written preliminary exam!  Nice work, Meenal! Updated May 2023: Meenal passes her CEMS oral preliminary exam; great work!
  • March 2023:  Dutcher group alums Dr. Vishal Panwar and Cassandra Vargas' paper entitled "Dispersion and mixing dynamics of complex oil-in-water emulsions in Taylor-Couette flows" has been published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, as a part of a two-part special virtual issue in celebration the centennial of G.I. Taylor's seminal Philosophical Transition 1923 paper.  
  • Feb 2023:  Dr. Shihao Liu on successfully defending his Mechanical Engineering PhD thesis entitled "Thermodynamic Modeling and Experimental Characterization of Bubble and Droplet Surface Tension from Micrometer to Millimeter Scale."  Many congratulations, Shihao!!  
  • Jan 2023:  Graduate student Shu Yang has passed her Mechanical Engineering preliminary exam.  Congrats Shu!

Fall 2022

  • Oct 2022:  Cari appointed to the Editor board of Aerosol Science & Technology.  
  • Sept 2022: Graduate student Shihao Liu's published paper "Concentration Depth Profile-Based Multilayer Sorption Surface Tension Model for Aqueous Solutions" was selected to be included in a recent jointly published Virtual Issue entitled "Atmospheric Aerosol Research". This Virtual Issue, organized by Franz M. Geiger, V. Faye McNeill, and Andrew J. Orr-Ewing, from ACS Earth and Space Chemistry and The Journal of Physical Chemistry A, respectively, collects recent manuscripts describing studies on particulate matter in the atmosphere. Great work! 
  • Sept 2022:  Graduate student Shihao Liu has just accepted a position at Intel as a Packaging R&D Engineer, to start after he graduates in 2023!   Congratulations, Shihao!  

Summer 2022

  • July 2022:  Graduate student Vishal Panwar successfully defended his PhD thesis!  Congratulations, Dr. Panwar!  
  • July 2022: Dr. Yun Chen and graduate student Rana Bachnak's co-authored paper, entitled "Studying coalescence at different lengthscales: from films to droplets" was accepted for publication in the Rheologica Acta.  This was in collaboration with Jan Vermant's group, led by Manolis Chatzigiannakis. Congrats all! 

Spring 2022

  • May 2022:  Graduate student Maggie House won the student poster competition at the Molecular Understanding of Atmospheric Aerosols (MUOAA 2022) conference.  Congrats, Maggie! 
  • May 2022:  Dr. Yun Chen, postdoctoral scholar in the Dutcher Lab, has just accepted a position as Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Louisiana Tech University.  Congratulations, Yun!
  • May 2022:  Graduate student Chinmayee Panigrahi just passed the ME Preliminary Exam.  Congrats Chinmayee!
  • April 2022:  Cari Dutcher was accepted as an Collegium Helveticum Senior Fellow, for her upcoming year-long sabbatical at ETH Zürich.  
  • March 2022:  Graduate student Nikhil Sethia's co-authored paper "Pancreatic islet cryopreservation by vitrification achieves high viability, function, recovery, and clinical scalability for transplantation" was just accepted in Nature Medicine.  This exciting work was in collaboration with Prof. John Bischof and lead by PI Erik Finger.  Congrats to all!  
  • Jan 2022: Rana Bachnak has also just been selected for the 2022 Joachim and Yuko Heberlein Travel Grant Award. Congratulations, Rana! 

Fall 2021

  • Dec 2021:  I am excited to share that our project "WP 18-1031: Understanding Shipboard Oil/Water Emulsions Using Macro- and Micro-scale Flows" has been awarded the 2021 SERDP Project of the Year for Weapons Systems and Platforms. The award recognizes scientific advances and technological solutions to some of DoD’s most significant environmental and installation energy challenges.  
  • Dec 2021: Graduate student Vishal Panwar has just accepted a position at Intel, to start after he graduates with his PhD in Summer 2022!   He will be Portland Technology Development (PTD) Litho Module and Integration Device Yield Engineer within the Lithography team at Intel.  Congratulations, Vishal!  
  • Nov 2021: Graduate student Shihao Liu's paper "Measurements of Static and Dynamic Bubble Surface Tension Using a Deformation-Based Microfluidic Tensiometer" was just accepted to the The Journal of Physical Chemistry B!  The paper will also appear in the upcoming Dor Ben-Amotz Festschrift Virtual Special Issue.  Great job, Shihao!  
  • Nov 2021: Meenal Rathi has joined the Dutcher Lab and Zasadzinski Lab as a co-advised first year chemical engineering PhD student.  Welcome Meenal!
  • Oct 2021: Iaroslav Makhnenko received the American Physical Society’s (APS) Division of Fluid Dynamics (DFD) travel grant to support his participation in the 2021 APS DFD Meeting at Phoenix. Congrats, Iaroslav!  
  • Oct 2021:  Rana Bachnak received the Society of Rheology (SOR) Student-Travel Grant to attend both the 92nd Annual Meeting of the Society of Rheology and the Rheology Research Symposium (RRS) in Bangor, Maine. Congrats, Rana!  

Summer 2021

  • July 2021: A paper by recent graduate Dr. Priyatanu Roy, and graduate student Maggie House on Ice nucleating activity and residual particle morphology of bulk seawater and sea surface microlayer was just accepted by ACS Earth and Space Chemistry.  This is an exciting NSF CAICE collaboration with DeMott (CSU) and Grassian (UCSD) groups.  Congrats all!  
  • July 2021:  A paper by graduate student Vishal Panwar and recent Dutcher lab graduate, Dr. Athena Metaxas, entitled "Polyelectrolyte solutions in Taylor-Couette flows" was just accepted to the Journal of Non-Newtonian Fluid Mechanics.  Congrats Vishal and Athena!  
  • June 2021: Vishal Panwar and Cari Dutcher were awarded a MnDRIVE Environment Seed Grant for work on Sustainable Extraction of Environmental Microplastics, as a part of the MnDRIVE-Environment Water Treatment & Management research focus. 
  • June 2021:  Graduate student Priyatanu Roy has successfully defended his PhD thesis entitled "Microfluidic studies of temperature dependent phase transitions in aerosol droplets".  Wonderful job and many congratulations Dr. Roy! 
  • June 2021: The Dutcher Lab is excited to welcome two undergraduate researchers this summer: Daniel Pan from UC Santa Barbara, through the NSF CAICE SURP program, and Cassandra Vargas from UC Riverside, through NSF MRSEC REU program.  Welcome Daniel and Cassandra!  
  • June 2021:  Graduate students Iaroslav Makhnenko, Rana Bachnak, and Vishal Panwar all passed their Preliminary Exam in Mechanical Engineering. Congratulations Iaroslav, Rana, and Vishal! 

Spring 2021

  • May 2021: Congratulations to undergraduate student researcher Devon Kelly on his acceptance of an offer to attend graduate school at the University of Michigan this Fall!  
  • April 2021:  Graduate student Maggie House passed her Preliminary Exam in Chemical Engineering and Materials Science. Congratulations Maggie! 
  • April 2021:  Rana Bachnak won the Student Poster Competition at the American Filtration and Separations (AFS) Filtration Conference (FiltCon 2021).  The work, entitled "Interfacial tensions and film drainage times with surfactant stabilized water in oil emulsions: Towards improved liquid-liquid separation", is a part of an exciting collaboration with Donaldson Company.  Congrats to Rana!   
  • April 2021:  Iaroslav Makhnenko's paper "Review of Liquid Sheet Breakup: Perspectives from Agricultural Sprays" was just accepted to the Journal of Aerosol Science!  The paper is a collaborative effort with researchers from Winfield United.  Great job, everyone!
  • April 2021: A highly collaborative paper "Accurate Prediction of Organic Aerosol Evaporation Using Kinetic Multilayer Modelling and the Stokes-Einstein Equation" co-authored by Shihao Liu and Dr Lucy Nandy, has just been accepted by the Journal of Physical Chemistry A.  Nice work all!
  • April 2021:  Dr. Ben Micklavzina's co-authored paper "Flow behavior of concentrated tricalcium phosphate suspensions in oil through injection for softgel encapsulation" was just accepted in International Journal of Pharmaceutics.  The paper is a collaborative IPRIME work with Prof. Kumar's group and Pharmavite Company.  Congrats all!  
  • April 2021:  Dr. Shweta Narayan's paper "Dilatational rheology of water-in-diesel fuel interfaces: Effect of surfactant concentration and bulk-to-interface exchange" was just accepted in Soft Matter.  The paper is a collaborative work with Prof. Zasadzinski's group and Donaldson Company.  Congrats all!  
  • March 2021: Priyatanu Roy has just accepted a position as a Postdoctoral Associate in the Departments of Biological Engineering and Mechanical Engineering in the Linda Griffith and Dave Trumper groups at MIT. The position will start after Priyatanu's graduation this July.  Congratulations, Priyatanu!
  • March 2021: Priyatanu Roy and Maggie House's paper "A Microfluidic Device for Automated High Throughput Detection of Ice Nucleation of Snomax" was just accepted in Micromachines!  Nice work!
  • January 2021:  Chinmayee Panigrahi has joined the Dutcher Lab as a first year mechanical engineering PhD student.  Welcome Chinmayee!
  • January 2021:  Shihao Liu's paper "Concentration Depth Profile-based Multilayer Sorption Surface Tension Model for Aqueous Solutions" was just accepted in Journal of Physical Chemistry A.  Congrats Shihao!  

Fall 2020

  • December 2020:  Chen et al. Langmuir 2020 on surfactant transport selected for ASC Editors' Choice!!  
  • November 2020: Recent PhD graduate Dr. Athena Metaxas, graduate student Vishal Panwar, and summer REU undergraduate Ruth Olson's paper "Ionic strength and molecular weight effects on floc formation and growth in Taylor-Couette flows" was just accepted in Soft Matter. Congrats everyone!  
  • November 2020: Vishal Panwar and Shu Yang have passed their mechanical engineering doctoral oral qualifying exams. Congrats Vishal and Shu!
  • November 2020:  Shu Yang has joined the Dutcher Lab as a first year mechanical engineering PhD student.  Shu will be co-advised by Prof. Satish Kumar (CEMS) and me.   Welcome Shu!
  • October 2020: Dr. Chen and Dr. Narayan's invited Feature Paper "Phase-dependent surfactant transport on the microscale: Interfacial tension and droplet coalescence" was just accepted in Langmuir.  Great work!  
  • October 2020: Dr. Narayan's paper "Droplet shape relaxation in a four-channel microfluidic hydrodynamic trap" was accepted in Physical Review Fluids, in collaboration with Donaldson Company. Congrats all!
  • September 2020: Dr. Chen's co-authored paper "Impact of Interfacial Tension and Critical Micelle Concentration on Bilgewater Oil Separation" was accepted in Journal of Water Process Engineering. This work is a DOD SERDP collaboration between groups at the University of Minnesota, University of Central Florida, Naval Research Laboratory and Carderock Naval Surface Warfare Center. Congrats everyone!
  • September 2020: Dr. Metaxas's paper "Microfluidic filament thinning of aqueous, fibrillar methylcellulose solutions" was accepted in Physical Review Fluids. This work is a MRSEC collaboration between the Dutcher, Lodge, and Bates groups. Congrats all!

Summer 2020

  • August 2020: Cari has been elected to the Executive Committee for the American Association of Aerosol Research AAAR Board, in the position of Secretary-Elect, starting Fall 2020.
  • August 2020: Shweta, Athena, Rana, and Tom's paper "Zooming in on the role of surfactants in droplet coalescence at the macro- and microscale" was accepted in Current Opinion in Colloid & Interface Science.  Congrats Everyone!
  • August 2020: Priyatanu, Iaroslav, and RJ's paper "Temperature-dependent phase transitions of aqueous aerosol droplet systems in microfluidic traps" was accepted in ACS Earth and Space Chemistry. This is an exciting CAICE collaboration with Prof. Vicki Grassian and graduate student Liora Mael at UC San Diego.  Congrats All!
  • August 2020:  Athena successfully defensed her PhD thesis in Materials Science and Engineering.  Excellent job, Dr. Metaxas! 
  • August 2020:  Shweta successfully defensed her PhD project in Mechanical Engineering.  Wonderful work, Dr. Narayan! 
  • July 2020: Shweta and Iaroslav's paper "Insights into the microscale coalescence behavior of surfactant-stabilized droplets using a microfluidic hydrodynamic trap" was accepted in Langmuir.  Congrats Shweta and Iaroslav!
  • July 2020: Lucy and Shihao's CAICE paper on phase transitions of sea spray droplets, in collaboration with Prof. Prather's group at UC San Diego and Scripps, was highlight in a joint virtual issue on Atmospheric Chemistry by ACS Earth and Space Chemistry and Journal of Physical Chemistry.  Congrats Everyone!
  • June 2020:  Cari presented a webinar for the SERDP & ESTCP Webinar Series on waste reduction and treatment in Armed Forces vessels. A recording of the webinar can be found here.

Spring 2020

  • May 2020:  Thomas Neumiller successfully defensed his MS project, and has graduated with an MS in Mechanical Engineering.  Congrats Tom! 
  • May 2020: Ben's paper "Microfluidic rheology of methylcellulose solutions in hyperbolic contractions and the effect of salt in shear and extensional flows" was accepted in Soft Matter.  Congrats Ben!
  • April 2020:  Nikhil Sethia passes his Preliminary Exam, and is now a PhD candidate in Chemical Engineering.  Congrats Nikhil!  
  • Feb 2020: Yun's paper "Size dependent droplet interfacial tension and surfactant transport in liquid–liquid systems, with applications in shipboard oily bilgewater emulsions" was accepted in Soft Matter.  Congrats Yun!

Fall 2019

  • Dec 2020: Exciting UMN Mech Eng - Industry partnerships recently highlighted on filtration fluids and agricultural sprays, including a shout out to our work on droplet dynamics.
  • Dec 2019: Prof Dutcher is delighted to share that she will be jointly appointed in Mechanical Engineering (ME) and Chemical Engineering and Materials Science (CEMS) departments, starting July 2020.
  • Dec 2019: Shihao Liu passed his Mechanical Engineering oral preliminary exam. Congrats Shihao!
  • Dec 2019: Shweta Narayan has accepted a position at Intel, starting end of summer 2020. Congrats Shweta!
  • Nov 2019: Athena Metaxas has accepted a position at PolyOne, starting end of summer 2020. Congrats Athena!
  • Nov 2019: Rana Bachnak has passed the mechanical engineering doctoral oral qualifying exams. Congrats Rana!
  • Nov 2019: Rana Bachnak and Maggie House have joined the lab as first year PhD students in mechanical engineering (Rana) and chemical engineering and materials science (Maggie). Welcome Rana and Maggie!
  • Oct 2019: Richard Arnold and Samantha Miller have joined the Dutcher Lab as undergraduate researchers, to explore temperature control for multiphase microfluidic flows. Welcome Richard and Sam!

Summer 2019

  • Aug 2019: Shweta Narayan has written a great article for Ensia on Clean Energy Technology. Check it out!
  • July 2019: The Dutcher Lab welcomes Summer REU student, Ruth Olson. Ruth will be studying particle-particle interactions in Taylor-Couette flows. Welcome Ruth!
  • July 2019: Professor Dutcher is the a new IPrime Faculty member. She is excited to join the the Coating Process Fundamentals Program (CPFP).
  • July 2019: SeaSCAPE 2019 has kicked off! The NSF Center for Aerosol Impacts on Chemistry of the Environment (CAICE) has started its summer of aerosol sampling from a 33 meter long wave flume filled with 3,400 gallons of seawater. Priyatanu Roy will be joining the team this July to collect bulk, sea surface microlayer, and aerosol samples.
  • June 2019: Athena Metaxas has been selected as a two-time recipient of the CEMS Outstanding TA Award. She is receiving this award for Structural Characterization Lab (Fall 2018) and Materials Processing Lab (Spring 2019). Well done, Athena!
  • June 2019: Dr. Lucy Nandy, Shihao Liu, and Connor Gunsbury's first author paper, "Multistep Phase Transitions in Sea Surface Microlayer Droplets and Aerosol Mimics using Microfluidic Wells", has been accepted by ACS Earth and Space Chemistry. The work was a part of an exciting NSF CAICE collaboration with Prof. Kim Prather and group members Xiaofei Wang and Matthew Pendergraft at UCSD and Scripps on the physical phase transformations of sea spray aerosols. Congrats to all! Sea Surface Microlayer (SSML) Droplets and PhaseCAICE News
  • June 2019: Shweta Narayan and Hallie's Boyer's co-authored paper, "Increasing Isoprene Epoxydiol-to-Inorganic Sulfate Aerosol (IEPOX:Sulfinorg) Ratio Results in Extensive Conversion of Inorganic Sulfate to Organosulfur Forms: Implications for Aerosol Physicochemical Properties", has been accepted by Environmental Science and Technology. The work represents a major collaboration on sulfur-containing aerosols led by Jason Surratt (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) and Andy Ault (University of Michigan). Congrats to all! Inorganic-to-Organic Sulfate Conversions in Aerosols

Spring 2019

  • May 2019: Prof. Dutcher spoke at the Board of Regents meeting on the importance of atmospheric aerosols on our climate. May 2019 BOR, Dutcher remarks at 1hr:05min.
  • May 2019: Prof. Dutcher has been promoted to associate professor with tenure. Congrats on tenure, Cari!
  • May 2019: Dr. Hallie Boyer will be the newest assistant professor of mechanical engineering this fall at the University of North Dakota (UND). Congrats Hallie!
  • May 2019: Priyatanu Roy has passes the mechanical engineering doctoral preliminary exams. Congrats Priyatanu!
  • May 2019: Prof. Dutcher has been awarded the George W. Taylor Career Development Award by the College of Science and Engineering. The Taylor Career Development Award recognizes exceptional contributions to teaching by a candidate for tenure. Congrats Cari!
  • April 2019: Iaroslav Makhnenko has passed the mechanical engineering doctoral oral qualifying exams. Congrats Iaroslav!
  • March 2019: Dr. Hallie Boyer's co-authored paper, "Surface Tensions of Picoliter Droplets with Sub-Millisecond Surface Age", has been accepted by the Journal of Physical Chemistry, in collaboration led by Dr. Bryan Bzdek at the University of Bristol. This work was done in a great ongoing collaboration with Bryan studying atmospheric aerosol surfaces. Congrats to all! Surface Tensions of sub-ms Droplets

Fall 2018

  • Nov 2018: The Dutcher family joyfully welcomes the newest member of the Dutcher family, Asha! Prof. Dutcher will be on parental leave until the start of the spring semester.
  • Oct 2018: Iaroslav Makhnenko and Nikhil Sethia have joined the lab as first year PhD students in mechanical engineering (Iaroslav) and chemical engineering and materials science (Nikhil). Welcome Iaroslav and Nikhil!
  • Oct 2018: Athena Metaxas, Nikolas Wilkinson, and Ellie Raethke's paper "In situ polymer flocculation and growth in Taylor-Couette flows" was accepted by Soft Matter. The paper uses our custom built Taylor-Couette cell with in-situ radial injection to study the formation of polymer-clay flocs in complex flows. Congrats to all! Flocculation in TC Flows
  • Aug 2018: Lucy Nandy's co-authored paper "Direct Determination of Aerosol pH: Size-Resolved Measurements of Submicron and Supermicron Aqueous Particles" was accepted by Analytical Chemistry, in collaboration with Andrew Ault at the University of Michigan. Congrats Lucy and all!
  • Aug 2018: Vishal Panwar joined the lab as a ME MS student and Connor Gunsbury and Natalie Vig as ME undergraduate reserachers this Fall. Welcome Vishal, Connor and Natalie!
  • July 2018: Dr. Ben Micklavzina and Dr. Yun Chen have joined our group as postdoctoral scholars. Welcome Ben and Yun!
  • June 2018: Nikolas Wilkinson's paper "Axial Mixing and Vortex Stability to in-situ Radial Injection in Taylor-Couette Laminar and Turbulent Flows" was accepted by Journal of Fluid Mechanics. Congrats Nikolas!
  • June 2018: Lucy Nandy has passed her PhD Defense Exam, and submitted her Thesis on Chemical Thermodynamics of Water Soluble Organic Compounds Found in Aqueous Atmospheric Aerosols: Modeling and Microfluidic Measurements. Congrats Dr. Nandy!
  • June 2018: We are excited about all the new scholars joining us this summer! Nancy Bautista and Clayton Hansen have joined the lab as summer undergraduate researchers, Joseph Hassler as a 1st year CEMS PhD student, and Prof. Nahla Al Amoodi as a visiting scholar. Welcome Nancy, Clay, Joe, and Nahla!
  • June 2018: Ellie Raethke was a recipient of the Chemical Engineering and Materials Science 2017-2018 TA Award. Congrats Ellie!
  • May 2018: Shweta Narayan's paper "Removing water from diesel fuel: Understanding the impact of droplet size on dynamic interfacial tension of water-in-fuel emulsions" was accepted by Energy and Fuels. This paper is a part of an ongoing exciting collaboration with Donaldson company, studying the removal of water droplets from diesel fuels. Congrats Shweta and all!
  • May 2018: Lucy Nandy has accepted a postdoctoral research position with Professor Veronica Vaida at the University of Colorado, Boulder! Lucy will be working on experimental methods using solar simulators and spectroscopic probes to investigate organic photochemistry in aqueous systems relevant to the atmosphere. Congrats Lucy!
  • May 2018: Priyatanu Roy joined the lab as a ME PhD student. Welcome Priyatanu!
  • April 2018: Shweta Narayan's poster "Microfluidics for Dynamic Interfacial Tension Measurement – towards Improved Fuel-Water Separation Testing" won 3rd place in the American Filtration & Separations Society (AFS) FiltCon 2018 student poster competition. Congrats Shweta!
  • April 2018: Lucy Nandy's co-authored paper "Influence of Particle Viscosity on Mass Transfer and Heterogeneous Ozonolysis Kinetics in Aqueous-Sucrose-Maleic Acid Aerosol" was accepted by Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, in collaboration with Jonathan Reid at the University of Bristol and Manabu Shiraiwa at University of California - Irvine. Congrats Lucy and all!
  • April 2018: Shihao Liu and Thomas Neumiller passed the Mechanical Engineering PhD qualifying examination. Congrats Shihao and Tom!
  • February 2018: Athena Metaxas's paper "Extensional flow behavior of methylcellulose solutions containing fibrils" was accepted by ACS Macro Letters. This was a MRSEC supported co-first authored work by Svetlana Morozova, Peter Schmidt and Athena from the Lodge, Bates and Dutcher groups. Congrats Athena, Peter, and Sveta!
  • January 2018: Eric Ruud's paper "Electrohydrodynamic aggregation with vertically inverted systems" was accepted by Physical Review E. Congrats Eric!
  • January 2018: Lucy Nandy's paper "Phase Behavior of Ammonium Sulfate with Organic Acid Solutions in Aqueous Aerosol Mimics Using Microfluidic Traps" was accepted by Journal of Physical Chemistry B. Congrats Lucy! JPC B microfluidic wells.
  • January 2018: Audrey Sebastian joined the lab as an undergraduate researcher. Welcome Audrey!

2017

  • December 2017: Nikolas Wilkinson has passed his PhD defense. Congrats Dr. Wilkinson!
  • November 2017: Andrew Metcalf and Shweta Narayan's paper "A Review of Microfluidic Concepts and Applications for Atmospheric Aerosol Science" was accepted by Aerosol Science and Technology. Congrats Andrew and Shweta! AS&T.
  • October 2017: Thomas Neumiller joined the lab as a 1st year ME PhD students. Welcome Tom!
  • October 2017: Professor Dutcher was awarded American Association for Aerosol Research (AAAR) Kenneth T. Whitby award. The Whitby award recongnizes outstanding technical contributions to aerosol science and technology by a young scientist. The aerosol thermodynamics and microphysics work being recognized is the result of outstanding research efforts by former and current Dutcher lab members Andrew Metcalf, Hallie Boyer, Lucy Nandy, Shweta Narayan and Peter Ohm. Congrats to all!
  • October 2017: Nikolas Wilkinson and Athena Metaxas's paper "pH Dependence of Bentonite Aggregate Size and Morphology on Polymer-Clay Flocculation" has just been accepted for publication in the Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects! This was the third paper in a fruitful MRSEC supported collaboration with Prof. Theresa Reineke's group in the Department of Chemistry. Congrats to All! Colloids and Surfaces A.
  • September 2017: Shihao Liu joined the lab as a 1st year ME PhD student. Welcome Shihao!
  • August 2017: Lucy Nandy's paper "Isotherm-Based Thermodynamic Model for Solute Activities of Asymmetric Electrolyte Aqueous Solutions" was accepted by Journal of Physical Chemistry A. Congrats Lucy! JPC A with Asymetric Salts.
  • August 2017: Shweta Narayan and Lucy Nandy received the American Association of Aerosol Research (AAAR) student travel grant for the upcoming AAAR annual conference. Congrats Shweta and Lucy! AAAR Student Travel Grants.
  • August 2017: Athena Metaxas received the Society of Rheology (SOR) student travel grant for the upcoming SOR annual conference. Congrats Athena! SOR Student Travel Grants.
  • July 2017: Nikolas Wilkinson's paper "Taylor-Couette Flow with Radial Fluid Injection" was accepted by Review of Scientific Instruments. Congrats Nikolas! Rev. Sci. Instrum.
  • July 2017: Lucy Nandy's co-authored paper "Spectroscopic Determination of Aerosol pH from Acid-Base Equilibria in Inorganic, Organic, and Mixed Systems" was accepted by Journal of Physical Chemistry A, in collaboration with Andrew Ault's group at the University of Michigan. Congrats Lucy! Aerosol pH paper
  • June 2017: Nikolas Wilkinson and Athena Metaxas's paper "Ionic Strength Dependence of Aggregate Size and Morphology on Polymer-Clay Flocculation" has just been accepted for publication in the Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects! This was an exciting collaborative effort with Prof. Theresa Reineke's group in the Department of Chemistry. Congrats to All! Colloids and Surfaces A paper.
  • June 2017: Hallie Boyer's Feature Paper on Atmospheric Aerosols appeared on today's cover of the Journal of Physical Chemistry A. Cover Art
  • June 2017: Mitch Gardner and Patrick McMauley have joined the lab as summer undergraduate researchers. Welcome Mitch and Patrick!
  • June 2017: Dr. Archit Dani has accepted a position at Intel Corporation, to work on fabrication of microprocessors. Congrats Archit!
  • May 2017: Hallie Boyer has passed her PhD defense. Congrats Dr. Boyer!
  • May 2017: Shweta Narayan has passed her PhD preliminary examination. Congrats Shweta!
  • May 2017: Hallie Boyer's paper "Atmospheric Aqueous Aerosol Surface Tensions: Isotherm-based Modeling and Biphasic Microfluidic Measurements" has just been accepted as a Feature Article in Journal of Physical Chemsitry A. Congrats Hallie!
  • May 2017: Hallie Boyer was invited to participate in ACCESS XIV, a highly competitive program for emerging senior scientists in atmospheric chemistry. Congrats Hallie! ACCESS XIV.
  • April 2017: Lucy Nandy's co-authored paper "Influence of Organic Compound Functionality on Aerosol Hygroscopicity: Dicarboxylic Acids, Alkyl-Substituents, Sugars and Amino Acids" has just been accepted for publication in the Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics! This was an exciting collaborative effort with Prof. Jonathan Reid's group at the University of Bristol. Congrats Lucy! ACP Paper.
  • April 2017: Hallie Boyer (soon to be Dr. Boyer!) has accepted the prestigious Dreyfus Postdoctoral Fellowship to study aerosols at the Center for Atmospheric Particle Studies (CAPS) at Carnegie Mellon University, starting August 1st, under the guidance of Drs. Ryan Sullivan and Neil Donahue. Congrats Hallie!
  • March 2017: Dr. Andrew Metcalf will be the newest Assistant Professor of Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences at Clemson University, starting Fall 2017. Congratulations, Andrew!
  • March 2017: Graduate student Athena Metaxas was awarded the NSF graduate student research fellowship. Congrats Athena!
  • Feb 2017: Professor Dutcher was awarded the University of Minnesota's McKnight Land-Grant Professorship. The award highlights the outstanding work on Atmospheric Aerosol Thermodynamics by Dutcher lab members Andrew Metcalf, Hallie Boyer, Lucy Nandy, Shweta Narayan and Peter Ohm. Congrats to all!
  • Jan 2017: Professor Dutcher and graduate students Hallie Boyer, Athena Metaxas, and Nikolas Wilkinson had a blast volunteering at the Energy and U! 3rd - 6th grade outreach shows at the University of Minnesota. Segments of Prof. Dutcher's performances were featured our local Channel 5 News.
  • Jan 2017: Dr. Archit Dani joined our group as a new Postdoc. Archit earned his PhD in Chemical Engineering from City University of New York. Welcome Archit!

2016

  • Dec 2016: Hallie Boyer's paper "A Statistical Thermodynamic Model for Surface Tension of Organic and Inorganic Aqueous Mixtures" was accepted by the The Journal of Physical Chemistry A. Congrats Hallie!
  • Nov 2016: Ellie Raethke joined the lab as a first year Materials Science and Engineering PhD student. Ellie is co-advised by Prof. Buhlmann from Chemsistry. Welcome Ellie!
  • Oct 2016: John Hunt joined the lab as an undergraduate researcher. Welcome John!
  • Oct 2016: Hallie Boyer, Lucy Nandy, and Nikolas Wilkinson received travel grants from American Association for Aerosol Research (AAAR) Student Travel Award, UMN Council of Graduate Students (COGS) Travel Award, and American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics (APS-DFD), respectively. Congrats Hallie, Lucy, and Nikolas!
  • Sept 2016: Ryan Bell joined the lab as an undergraduate researcher. Welcome Ryan!
  • July 2016: Two of our group's co-authored papers are highlighted in the Journal of Physical Chemistry A Virtual Issue on Atmospheric Physical Chemistry: Peter Ohm's paper in collaboration with the Reid group (optical tweezer, DOI: 10.1021/jp510525r), and Lucy Nandy's paper in collaboration with the Ault group (Raman Microspectroscopy, DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpca.5b12699). Congrats to all!
  • June 2016: Dion Casey joined the lab as a summer undergraduate researcher. Welcome Dion!
  • May 2016: Cari Dutcher was awarded the ACS PRF Doctoral New Investigator award. Her award is entitled "Polyelectrolyte-Clay Dynamics and Assembly in Taylor-Couette Flows for Applications in Improved Oil Production". The proposal highlighted the outstanding preliminary work of lab members Nikolas Wilkinson, Eric Ruud, and Athena Metaxas. Congrats to all!
  • May 2016: Lucy Nandy and Peter Ohm's paper "Isotherm-Based Thermodynamic Models for Solute Activities of Organic Acids with Consideration of Partial Dissociation" was accepted by the The Journal of Physical Chemistry A. Congrats Lucy and Peter!
  • May 2016: Hallie Boyer's paper "Statistical Thermodynamic Model for Surface Tension of Aqueous Organic Acids with Consideration of Partial Dissociation" was accepted by the The Journal of Physical Chemistry A. Congrats Hallie!
  • May 2015: Energy and U shows at the Rarig Theater, May 11-20. Flames, Explosions and Dancing!
  • April 2016: The proposal "Development of Single Nanoparticle Sensing System for Application in Drinking Water" was selected for funding by the MnDRIVE RSAM partnership award, in collaboration with Prof. Chris Hogan and Kanomax FMT. Congrats Cari and Chris!
  • April 2016: Shweta Narayan passed the Mechanical Engineering PhD qualifying examination. Congrats Shweta!
  • March 2016: Nikolas Wilkinson, Athena Metaxas, Eric Ruud, and Ellie Raethke's paper "Internal Structure Visualization of Polymer - Clay Flocculants using Fluorescence" was accepted for publication by Colloids and Interface Science Communications, in collaboration with Theresa Reineke's group in Chemistry. Congrats Nikolas, Athena, Eric, and Ellie!
  • Jan 2016: Cari Dutcher was awarded the NSF CAREER award through the Atmospheric Chemistry program. Her award is entitled "CAREER: Understanding Multiphase Atmospheric Aerosol Particle Thermodynamics using Models, Mimics, and Microfluidics". The proposal highlighted the outstanding preliminary work of lab members Andrew Metcalf, Hallie Boyer, Lucy Nandy, and Peter Ohm. Congrats to all!
  • Jan 2016: Lucy Nandy's co-authored paper "Direct Measurement of pH in Individual Particles via Raman Microspectroscopy and Variation in Acidity with Relative Humidity" was accepted by Journal of Physical Chemistry, in collaboration with Andrew Ault's group at the University of Michigan. Congrats Lucy!
  • Jan 2016: Andrew Metcalf and Hallie Boyer's paper "Interfacial Tensions of Aged Organic Aerosol Particle Mimics using a Biphasic Microfluidic Platform" was accepted by the Environmental Science and Technology. Congrats Andrew and Hallie!
  • Jan 2016: Eric Ruud and Nikolas Wilkinson's paper "Polymer and Particle Dynamics and Assembly in Varied Hydrodynamic Fields" was accepted by the Macromolecular Chemistry and Physics. Congrats Eric and Nikolas!
  • Jan 2016: Hallie Boyer won the Agnes Hansen Travel Award from the Xi Chapter of Graduate Women in Science. Congrats Hallie!

2015

  • Nov 2015: Athena Metaxas (Chemical Engineering and Materials Science) and Shweta Narayan (Mechanical Engineering) joined the lab as first year PhD students. Welcome Athena and Shweta!
  • Nov 2015: Peter Ohm's co-authored paper "Diffusion and Reactivity in Ultraviscous Aerosol and the Correlation with Particle Viscosity" was accepted by Chemical Science, in collaboration with Jonathan Reid's group at the University of Bristol. Congrats Peter!
  • Sept 2015: Alex Odom and Raymond Bouchart joined the lab as undergraduate researcher. Welcome Alex and Raymond!
  • Sept 2015: Cari was elected AAAR Aerosol Physics Working Group Vice Chair. Congrats Cari!
  • Aug 2015: Hallie Boyer's paper "Parameter Interpretation and Reduction for a Unified Statistical Mechanical Surface Tension Model" was accepted by the Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters. Congrats Hallie!
  • June 2015: Ellie Raethke and Kyle Hemmingsen joined the lab as summer undergraduate researchers. Welcome Ellie and Kyle!
  • May 2015: Peter Ohm has successfully defended his master's thesis. This fall, Peter will be starting a PhD program in Applied Math at Tufts University. Congrats Peter!
  • May 2015: Nikolas Wilkinson and Hallie Boyer have successfully passed their preliminary examinations. Congrats Nikolas and Hallie!
  • May 2015: Energy and U shows at the Rarig Theater, May 19-23. Flames, Explosions and Dancing!
  • Feb 2015: NSF MRSEC Press Release! For more information, check out our IRG page.
  • Feb 2015: Cari was awarded the 3M Nontenure Faculty Award. Congrats Cari!
  • Feb 2015: Peter Ohm's first-author paper "An Isotherm-Based Thermodynamic Model for Electrolyte and Non-Electrolyte Solutions, incorporating Long- and Short-Range Electrostatic Interactions" was accepted by the Journal of Physical Chemistry A. Congrats Peter!
  • Jan 2015: Peter Ohm's co-authored paper "Organic Component Vapor Pressures and Hygroscopicities of Aqueous Aerosol Measured by Optical Tweezers" was accepted by the Journal of Physical Chemistry A. Congrats Peter!

2014

  • Dec 2014: Lucy Nandy joined the lab as a 1st year ME PhD student. Welcome Lucy!
  • Sept 1, 2014: Michael Van Heel joined the lab as an undergraduate researcher. Welcome Michael!
  • July 1, 2014: Andrew Metcalf was awarded the NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship. Congrats Andrew!
  • June 2, 2014: Chase Quinney and Harry Barrett joined the lab as summer undergraduate researchers. Welcome Chase and Harry!
  • April 10, 2014: Nikolas Wilkinson was awarded the NDSEG Graduate Research Fellowship. Congrats Nikolas!
  • April 10, 2014: Eric Ruud passed his qualifying examination. Congrats Eric!
  • April 1, 2014: Hallie Boyer was awarded the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. Congrats Hallie!
  • March 17, 2014: Hallie Boyer joined the Dutcher Group as second year Mechanical Engineering graduate student. Welcome Hallie!

2013

  • Oct 10, 2013: Peter Ohm and Eric Ruud joined the Dutcher Group as first year Mechanical Engineering graduate students. Welcome Peter and Eric!
  • Sept 16, 2013: Dr. Andrew Metcalf joined the Dutcher Group as a Postdoctoral Scholar, and Nikolas Wilkinson as a first year Chemical Engineering graduate student. Welcome Andrew and Nikolas!
  • Sept 1, 2013: Cari Dutcher joined the University of Minnesota as an Assistant Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department. Welcome Cari!
Group Photo

Dutcher Group: Spring 2019