Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Andre obtained a joint Degree in Chemistry and Physics in 2002 from Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris. In 2007 he received a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the same institution, studying, with Prof. Jullien, the kinetics and diffusion of DNA oligonucleotides in a continuous microfluidic chip. In 2008 he spent a year as an invited researcher at the laboratory of Professor Yoshikawa at Kyoto University where he worked on a sequence-independent, synthetic approach to regulate RNA synthesis from DNA using light. He joined Prof. Austin's group in October 2008 as a King Abdullah University of Science and Technology fellow to perform directed evolution on oil-producing algae.

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Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Liyu received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Science and Technology of China in 2004. He later decided to a pursue a Ph.D. in Physics from Prof. Weijia Wen at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. In 2006, he joined the Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Program, where he primarily studied electrorheological fluids and their applications in microfluidic devices. After receiving his degrees in July 2008, he joined Prof. Robert Austin's group in February 2009, where he now works on precise micro-manipulation of bacteria and algae in microfluidic environments.

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Postdoctoral Research Fellow

(Hong Kong University of Science and Technology)

Chih-kuan received his BS in Physics from Naional Taiwan University in Taipei, Taiwan in 2002. Before joining Austin group, he had experiences in Belousov-Zhabotinsky system, and multi-photon fluorescence microscopy. He joined Austin group as a PhD student in the summer of 2004, and his first project was on up-conversion phosphers. He later started to use carbon nanotubes for electrical DNA sensing, then started to develop ways to integrate detection electronics with fluidic systems. He graduated in 2008, and moved to Hong Kong University of Science and Technology as a Postdoctoral Fellow, as Prof. Austin takes a year of sabbatical leave there. He recently started to work on evolution related projects.

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Research Scientist

Research: My work is at the interface between physics and biology. I collaborate closely with physicists, biochemists and molecular biologists. Recently, I have been using the power of single particle optics and microfluidics to probe the dynamics of protein-aggregate and vesicle-coat disassembly. Techniques of general interest are:

• New optical techniques for biology
  
• Novel microfluidic devices to help image and isolate sub-100nm particles such as protein aggregates and viruses

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Graduate Student

Guillaume Lambert received his B.S in physics in 2007 from McGill University, in Quebec, performing research with Prof. Guillaume Gervais. His honours thesis involved the study of the electrical properties of carbon nanotubes at low temperatures. He then joined Prof. Austin's group to perform research on the evolution of bacteria in micro-environments. His current projects are evolutionary development of E.coli, microscopic swimmers and physical oncology.

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Graduate Student

David Liao completed a B.S. in Physics at Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA in 2005 modeling limits to dynamic range that photon bunching imposes in optical coherence microscopes with Prof. Richard C. Haskell's biophysics group and working on Slater-rule-like coefficients for electronic states of diatomic molecules with Prof. Robert J. Cave in quantum chemistry. David's graduate generals project in Austin's group studied the advantage of fluorescence correlation spectroscopy for studying chemical reactions in flow.

Currently, David models the dynamics of individual cells, populations, and population mixtures in microscopically heterogeneous environments. These projects often overlap with Guillaume Lambert's experiments. Understanding cell evolution and behavior in microscopically textured environments is an important step in developing therapies to promote growth of helpful bacterial communities, to fight infections, and to manage the risks that cancer poses including immediate risks from tumors and costs to health during later recurrence and metastasis.

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Graduate Student (EE Department - shared with Sturm group)

Kevin Loutherback received Bachelor of Science degrees in physics and electrical engineering from UC Irvine in 2006. While at UCI, he performed research on carbon nanotube synthesis and high-temperature electronic properties under the supervision of Phil Collins in the physics department. His current work focuses on applications of microfluidic separation techniques to problems in biology, medicine, and energy. More information can be found in the Bump Array section of research projects.

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Troy Mestler graduated summa cum laude from Duke University in 2007 with a B.S. in Physics. He joins the Austin group having a rather diverse background, with both theoretical and experimental research experience in non-linear dynamics, nuclear physics, biophysics, and high-energy particle physics. Past work has been on the Neutron Electric Dipole Moment (nEDM) experiment with Dr. Haiyan Gao (Duke), infrared pneumathorax detectors with Dr. Glenn Edwards (Duke), and luminosity measurements on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) with Dr. Valerie Halyo (Princeton). He and postdoctoral researcher Andre Estevez-Torres are currently working on directed evolution of algae and designing closed ecosystems with biofuel production in mind. When he is not in the lab, Troy enjoys working out, modifying his car, watching youtube, inventing various gadgets, and jumping out of planes.

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