Suriyanarayanan (Suri) Vaikuntanathan

Carlos Floyd

Education
- BS University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2015
- PhD, University of Maryland, 2020

Awards
- CCTCh Postdoctoral fellow, University of Chicago, 2020
- University of Maryland Graduate School’s Outstanding Research Assistant Award, 2020
- COMBINE NSF Research Traineeship Fellow, 2017
- University of North Carolina Class of 2015 Distinguished Scholars, 2015

Contact Information
Email: csfloyd@uchicago.edu
Office: GCIS E145

Matthew Du

Research
- Active matter
- Machine learning
- Nonequilibrium statistical mechanics

Education
- BA Chemistry, Northwestern University
- PhD Chemistry, University of California San Diego

Awards
- Finalist for Justin Jankunas Doctoral Dissertation Award in Chemical Physics, APS, 2023
- James Franck Institute Director's Postdoctoral Fellowship Award, University of Chicago, 2022
- Chemical Computing Group Excellence Award for Graduate Students, ACS, 2021
- Distinguished Graduate Student Fellowship, University of California San Diego, 2020-2021

Contact Information
Email: madu@uchicago.edu
Office: GCIS E145

Deb Sankar Banerjee

Research
- Biophysics

Education
- PhD Raman Research Institute, 2018

Contact Information
Email: dsbanerjee@uchicago.edu
Office: GCIS E145

Jordan Shivers

Research
- Active matter, biophysics, machine learning

Education
- BSE, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Princeton University, 2016
- PhD, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Rice University, 2022

Awards
- Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of Chicago, 2023
- Kadanoff-Rice Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of Chicago, 2022
- Ralph Budd Ph.D. Thesis Award, Rice University, 2022
- Lodieska Stockbridge Vaughn Fellowship, Rice University, 2020
- Sunit Patel ’85 Endowed Fellowship for Research Accomplishment, Rice University, 2020
- Riki Kobayashi Fellowship in Chemical Engineering, Rice University, 2018

Contact Information
Email: jshivers@uchicago.edu
Office: GCIS E145

Vidyesh Rao

Research
- Physical Learning

Education
- PhD Physics, Syracuse University

Contact Information
Email: vidyeshrao@uchicago.edu
Office: GCIS E145

Hector Manuel Lopez Rios

Research
- Dynamics, chemical systems, and out-of-equilibrium phenomena

Education
- BS, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico
- PhD, Northwestern University

Awards
- MRSEC Director's Fellowship, University of Chicago
- 2024 APS DSOFT Emerging Soft Matter Excellence Award Finalist
- International Institute for Nanotechnology Outstanding Researcher Award, Northwestern University
- MRSEC Graduate Fellowship, University of Chicago

Contact Information
Email: hectorlr@uchicago.edu
Office: GCIS E145

Aditya Singh

Education
- BS, University of Wisconsin–Madison, 2020
- PhD, University of California, Berkeley, 2025

Awards
- CCTCh Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Chicago, 2025
- Kavli ENSI Graduate Fellow, Kavli Institute, 2024
- Poster award, CECAM 55, 2024
- Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award, UC Berkeley, 2023
- Poster prize, Berkeley Statistical Mechanics Meeting, 2023

Contact Information
Email: ansingh@uchicago.edu
Office: GCIS E145

Billie Meadowcroft

Research
- Biophysics
- Machine learning

Education
- MSc Natural Sciences, University of Cambridge, UK
- PhD Physics, University College London, UK

Awards
- Kadanoff-Rice fellowship award, 2024
- Honorarium for Chicago Rising Stars in Soft and Biological Matter (2022)
- Queens' college president's award for academic excellence (2020)

Contact Information
Email: bmeadowcroft@uchicago.edu
Office: GCIS E145

Lissa Rennert

Research
- Non-equilibrium biophysics

Education
- BS Physics, Rochester Institute of Technology 2019
- MS Materials Science and Engineering, Rochester Institute of Technology 2019

Contact Information
Email: erennert@uchicago.edu
Office: GCIS E145

Daiki Goto

Research
- Soft and Active Matter

Education
- ME, Applied Physics, University of Tokyo, 2019

Awards
– Sachs Fellowship, Department of Physics, University of Chicago, 2020
– Yoshida Scholarship, YSF, 2019–2022

Contact Information
Email: dgoto@uchicago.edu
Office: GCIS E145

Kristina Trifonova

Research
- Neural network-like behavior of disordered, non-equilibrium physical systems

Education
- BS, Emory University, 2023

Awards
– NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, 2023 – UChicago Physical Sciences Division Teaching Award, 2024

Contact Information
Email: ktrifonova@uchicago.edu
Office: GCIS E145

Frank Gao

Research
- Cell state dynamics and transitions

Education
- BS, University of California, Berkeley, 2019

Awards
- Wayne C. Booth Prize for Excellence in Teaching from University of Chicago, 2021

Alexandra L.

Research
Biophysics

Education
- BS Chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, 2018

Awards
- NSF GRFP, 2018
- Nathan Sugarman Teaching Award in General Chemistry, University of Chicago, 2019

Contact Information
Email: alexandral @ uchicago . edu
Office: GCIS E145

Agnish Behera

Research
- Non-equilibrium dynamics of memory and information processing

Education
- BS, Indian Institute of Science, 2019

Awards
- DAAD Scholar, 2018
- McCormick Summer Fellowship, 2019

Contact Information
Email: agnish@uchicago.edu
Office: GCIS E145

Aditya Nandy

Research
- Biophysics

Education
- BS Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, 2017
- PhD Theoretical Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2023

Position
- Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, 2025

Awards
- Schmidt AI+Science Fellow, University of Chicago, 2023
- AIChE CoMSEF Outstanding Graduate Student Award, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2022
- Chemical Computing Group Excellence Award for Graduate Students, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2022
- NSF GRFP, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2019
- Department of Chemistry Award for Outstanding Teaching, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2018
- Regents’ and Chancellor’s Scholarship, University of California, Berkeley, 2013

Contact Information
Email: nandy@uchicago.edu
Office: GCIS E145

Gregory Rassolov

Research
- Active matter

Education
- BS Chemistry, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, 2018

Awards
- Wayne C. Booth Prize for Excellence in Teaching

Contact Information
Email: grassolov@uchicago.edu

Yuqing Qiu

Education
- BS Zhejiang University, 2012
- PhD University of Utah, 2018

Awards
- Yen Postdoctoral Fellow, Institute for Biophysical Dynamics, University of Chicago, 2019
- Ronald & Eileen Ragsdale Curie Club Graduate Research Award, University of Utah, 2017

Contact Information
Email: yuqingqiu@uchicago.edu

Michael Nguyen

Research
- Design Principles for Non-Equilibrium Self-Assembly

Education
- BS Chemical Engineering, University of California, Irvine, 2015
- BS Chemistry, University of California, Irvine, 2015
- MS Chemistry from University of Chicago, 2016

Awards
- Magna Cum Laude, University of California, Irvine, 2015
- McCormick Fellowship, University of Chicago
- NSF GRFP Fellowship
- Anthony Turkevich Award, 2018

Contact Information
Email: michael9@uchicago.edu
Office: GCIS E145

Laura Tociu

Research
- Active matter and biophysics

Education
- Princeton University, AB, 2016

Awards
- University of Chicago Light Fellowship, 2019
- University of Chicago Eckhardt Fellowship, 2016
- Hypercube Award for Best Computational Thesis, Princeton 2016

Contact Information
Email: ltociu@uchicago.edu
Office: GCIS E145

Clara del Junco

Postdoctoral Scholar at Knowledge Lab, University of Chicago

Research
- Self-assembly far from equilibrium, Control in biological networks

Education
- McGill University, BSc, 2014

Selected Awards
- University of Chicago Harper Dissertation Fellowship, 2019
- John C. Light Memorial Fellowship in Theoretical Chemistry, 2018
- National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Postgraduate Scholarship - Doctoral, 2018

Contact Information
Email: clara.deljunco@posteo.net

Zhenghan Liao

Postdoctoral Researcher at Center for Neural Science, New York University

Research
Soft Matter and Biophysics

Education
- BS Chemstry from Pekin University 2014

Awards
- Windt Chemistry Graduate Student Travel Award from University of Chicago, 2018

Contact Information
Email: zliao@nyu.edu

Nick Ludwig

Backend Engineer at Mod9 Technologies

Research
Assembly and organization in soft matter

Education
- BS Chemistry with Honors from University of California, Merced, 2014
- MS Chemistry from University of Chicago, 2015

Awards
- School of Natural Sciences Outstanding Undergraduate, 2014
- University of Chicago MRSEC Graduate Fellowship, 2016

Contact Information
Email: nick.b.ludwig@gmail.com

Kinjal Dasbiswas

Assistant Professor at UC Merced

Research
- Soft Matter and Biological Physics

Education
- PhD from University of Florida, 2012

Contact Information
Email: kdasbiswas@ucmerced.edu