School of Natural Sciences
University of California, Merced, CA 95344
(773) 988 2678 (cell); (209) 228 4048 (office)
email: agopinathan@ucmerced.edu
Education
University of Chicago: Ph.D., Physics, August 2003
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, M.Sc. (Integrated), Physics, May 1998
Research Experience and Skills
(2006-present) University of California, Merced: Assistant Professor .
(2003-2006) University of California, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles : Joint Postdoctoral researcher with Philip Pincus and Andrea Liu.
Biopolymer systems: kinetics, structure and function :
Rate equation analysis of length distributions and branching densities in steady state actively polymerizing, branching and severing actin systems.
Defect induced stresses and buckling in biopolymer bundles: a theoretical consideration of the effects on the structure of bundles that contain vacancy or twist defects.
Dynamics of membranes driven by actin polymerization.
Finite element simulations of
actin based propulsion.
Diffusion and binding:
Study of the diffusion of particles through tubes of comparable size in the presence of binding: an analytical and simulation study.Effective temperatures in sheared glassy systems:
An MD simulation study of the dynamics of the system as a function of the effective temperature.
(1998-2003) University of Chicago - Research Assistant for Thomas Witten.
Statistically-locked in transport:
Introduced an idealized model of colloidal transport through optical trap arrays that shows
the existence of statistically locked-in transport observed in experiments. Formed theoretical basis for novel micron scale size based sorting technique. Work done in collaboration with David Grier.
Atomic Terrace Merging : Defect Formation and Kinetics
Studied a simple model of the kinetics of atomic step doubling. Predicted the number and nature as well as the dynamical evolution of defect structures formed in this non- equilibrium process. Suggested time dependent protocols that can lower the effective number of defects and the time to completion of the process.
Self-Assembly of nanowires :
Identified a mechanism for the formation of long lived non-equilibrium wire-like states of metal on a diblock template. Simulation studies of the kinetic mechanism of this process reproduce the general morphology and unique correlations that are also observed in the experiments.
Crumpling :
Studied the effect of the characteristic ridges in a crumpled sheet on the propagation of transverse elastic waves. Showed that ridges acted as barriers to propagation, leading to the trapping of certain modes in the flat facet regions of the sheet. Simulations results agreed with our analytical predictions. Work in collaboration with S.C. Venkataramani.
Charged Colloidal Systems:
Estimated the magnitude of the weak long range Casimir attraction between charged colloidal macro-ions due to monopolar fluctuations of the counter-ions. Eliminated fluctuation induced attractions as a mechanism for experimentally observed attractions. Work in collaboration with L.P. Kadanoff, S.N. Coppersmith, T. Zhou and D.G. Grier.
(1995-1998) - Research Projects
Phase Ordering kinetics (TIFR (Tata) Mumbai, 1997) Calculated the persistence exponent for an exactly solvable model of deterministic coarsening in the 1D Potts' model.
Traffic Flow in 2D (IIT Kanpur, 1997-1998) Simulation studies of the jamming transition in Nagel-Schreckenberg model in two dimensions with traffic lights.
Gradiometer (IIT Kanpur, 1997-1998) Designed and built a gradiometer to measure AC susceptibility as part of Master's project.
Periodic orbit expansions in non-linear dynamical systems (IIT Madras, 1996);
Periodically forced chemical oscillations (Instiute for Mathematical Sciences, Madras, 1995)
Teaching and Related Experience
Teaching Experience: Served as a teaching assistant for seven quarters at the University of Chicago, and was nominated by the students for the best TA of the year. In addition, participated in helping junior school children in a Chicago Public School with science projects as a part of the Outreach program for MRSEC. Also lectured for a semester at a science college in India where I taught Quantum Mechanics and Freshman Physics.
Organizational Experience: Organized the weekly seminar series (IRG1) for the Materials Research Laboratory since June 2004 and also helped start and continue to organize a weekly Soft Matter Baglunch in Physics.
Conference attendance. Attended and presented research work at several conferences including the APS March Meetings, Principles of Soft Matter Conference at Santa Fe (New Mexico), Condensed Matter Summer School at Boulder (Colorado), Opportunities in Biology Conference at Boston (Massachusetts), Midwest Solid State Conference at Urbana-Champaign (Illinois), Biophysical Society meeting at Los Angeles (California) and various workshops and conferences organized at the University of Chicago, UCLA and UCSB. Invited presentations including : Indian Institute of Technology (Chennai, India), MRL (UCSB), NEC (Princeton) and Invited Symposium on Cytoskeletal Dynamics and Mechanics (APS March meeting, 2006).
Awards and Honors
Sachs Fellowship (1999): awarded by the Department of Physics, University of Chicago, for the best academic performance during graduate coursework.
Visiting Summer Research Fellowship (1997): awarded by TIFR (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research), Mumbai, India.
Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship (1996 & 1997) awarded by the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research.
First place (1991) and seventh place (1994) in the National Talent Tests in Mathematics awarded by the National Board for Higher Mathematics and the Indian National Math Olympiad committee.
Professional associations
Member of the American Physical Society and Biophysical Society.
Refereed for Journal of Statistical Physics, Journal of Physical Chemistry and Physical Review.
Publications
A. Gopinathan, A.J. Liu, "Severing, Branching and their Optimal Coupling in Dynamic Actin Structures", to be submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett
N. Gov, A. Gopinathan, "Dynamics of Membranes Driven by Actin Polymerization", to appear, Biophys .J, 90(2), (2006)
Ajay Gopinathan, D.G. Grier, "Statistically Locked-in Transport through Periodic Potential Arrays", Phys. Rev. Lett., 92, 130602 (2004)
Ajay Gopinathan, "Kinetic Self-Assembly of Metals on Co-Polymer Templates", Phys. Rev. E, 71(4) 041601 (2005)
Ajay Gopinathan, T.A. Witten, "Defect Formation and Kinetics of Atomic Terrace Merging", Phys. Rev. E., 70, 041603 (2004)
Ajay Gopinathan, T.A. Witten and S.C. Venkataramani, "Trapping of Vibrational Energy in Crumpled Sheets", Phys. Rev. E., 65, 036613 (2002)
Ajay Gopinathan, T. Zhou, S.N. Coppersmith, L.P. Kadanoff and D.G. Grier, "Weak Long Range Casimir Attraction in Colloidal Crystals", Europhys. Lett., 57 (3), 451 (2002)
Ajay Gopinathan "Scaling Exponent Beta for Coarsening in a 1D q-state Potts System", J. Phys. A. 31, 5499 (1998)
In preparation:
Ajay Gopinathan and Andrea Liu, "Elastic Actin Tails: Shape, Stresses and Propulsion"
Ajay Gopinathan, M. Henle, U. Raviv and D. Needleman, "Defect Induced Morphologies of Biopolymer Bundles"
Tal Danino, Ajay Gopinathan and Andrea Liu, "Effective Temperatures and the Second Law"
Contact Information for References
Professor Philip Pincus
fyl@mrl.ucsb.edu
(805) 893 4685
Department of Physics and MRL, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106
Professor Andrea J. Liu
ajliu@physics.upenn.edu
(215) 573 7374
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104
Professor Thomas A. Witten
t-witten@uchicago.edu
(773) 702 0947
Department of Physics and James Franck Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637
Professor David G. Grier
david.grier@nyu.edu
(212) 998 3713
Department of Physics and Center for Soft Matter Research, New York University,
New York, NY 10003
Professor Cyrus Safinya
safinya@mrl.ucsb.edu
(805) 893 8635
Department of Physics and MRL, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106
Professor Leo P. Kadanoff
leop@uchicago.edu
(773) 702 7189
Department of Physics and James Franck Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637
Professor Shankar C. Venkataramani
shankar@math.arizona.edu
(520) 621 2906
Department of Mathematics ,University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721