THERMO/FLUIDS RESEARCH SEMINAR SERIES

"Hydrodynamics of Biological and Synthetic Small-scale Swimmers"

Eric Lauga

University of California, San Diego

Friday, 13 November 2009
38-138 Engineering IV
Time: 12:00 pm

Abstract: Hydrodynamics plays a crucial role in many cellular processes. One example is the locomotion of cells such as bacteria, spermatozoa, and essentially half of the microorganisms on earth. These organisms typically possess flagella, slender whiplike appendages which are actuated in a periodic fashion in a fluid environment, thereby giving rise to propulsion. Motivated by recent experimental data, as well as the need to design efficient small-scale synthetic swimmers, we consider in this talk some hydrodynamics problems arising for biological and synthetic small-scale swimmers. We first address the observed flagellar synchronization between eukaryotic cells swimming in close proximity. We then discuss the optimal design of synthetic swimmers on two examples. We finally address the various ways that can be used to escape the constraints of Purcell's scallop theorem. We conclude by presenting a numerical study of the locomotion of deformable vesicles.

Biosketch: Eric Lauga did his undergraduate studies in France at Ecole Polytechnique. He did his graduate program at Corps des Mines from Ecole des Mines de Paris, France. Eric Lauga got his MS in Fluid Mechanics from University Paris VI, PhD in Applied Mathematics from Harvard and Postdoc in Mech Engineering at MIT. He was an Assistant Professor of Applied Mathematics at MIT. He is now currently Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace and Engineering at UC San Diego. Recipient of the 2006 Andreas Acrivos Dissertation Award in Fluid Dynamics and the 2008 NSF CAREER Award.

All faculty, teaching assistants, students, and guests are welcome to this event.
(Refreshments will be served)
For more information, please contact Prof. John Kim at jkim@seas.ucla.edu. Phone: (310-825-4393)