Todd Squires, PI

Professor, Chemical Engineering
Ph.D., Physics, Harvard (2002)
B.S., Physics, University of California Los Angeles (1995)
B.A., Russian Literature, University of California Los Angeles (1995)
Email (@ucsb.edu): tsquires
Office: 3347 Engineering II

My teaching and research interests center on the dynamics and processes of soft materials and complex fluids. Broadly, I am interested in how to understand, troubleshoot, and design multifunctional, multicomponent complex fluids — as performed by living organisms as well as a wide range of industries (consumer products, cosmetics and foods; pharmaceuticals; energy (oil, gas, mineral and electrochemical); materials, coatings and sprays, and the precursors used to process and manufacture almost everything…) Although toothpaste, drilling muds, and oven cleaners might seem to have little in common, they all employ analogous ‘building blocks’ to achieve similar mechanical and flow properties, for related reasons.

Gaurav Agarwal

Ph.D. Candidate
B.Tech. Chemical Engineering, IIT Kharagpur (2020)
M.Tech. Chemical Engineering, IIT Kharagpur (2020)
Email (@ucsb.edu): gauravagarwal

I’m Gaurav Agarwal, a fourth-year graduate student in the Squires group.  I graduated with B.Tech and M.Tech degrees from IIT Kharagpur, where I worked in the area of microfluidics and interfacial phenomena. Continuing to pursue my interest in soft matter at UCSB, I work on understanding the morphology of mixed monolayers at liquid interfaces. Outside of the lab, you can find me mainly at the rec center— swimming, playing badminton, or working out.

Dylan R. Pollard

Ph.D. Student
B.Sc. Physics, Auburn University (2023)
B.Ch.E. Chemical Engineering, Auburn University (2023)
Email (@ucsb.edu): pollard
LinkedIn
Website: dylanrpollard.com

I’m Dylan Pollard, a second-year graduate student in the Squires group. I received degrees in physics and chemical engineering from Auburn University, where I performed computational chemistry research on heterogeneous and enzyme catalysis. At UCSB, I decided to swap over to transport phenomena, where I am currently studying the mechanics of polymer gel membranes under unique conditions to increase separation capability. Outside of the lab, you can find me either at the rec center, on a road trip somewhere, or on Fortnite.

Many of our lab members go on to academia or industry. Some industries/research centers are Aramco, Dow, Intel, CNRS Toulouse, and LLNL. Below are the current academic institutions for some of our recent graduate students and postdocs.

Name

Xiaoyu Tang

Huanshu Tan

Alexandra Bayles

Harishankar Manikantan

Gwynn Elfring

Aditya Khair

KyuHan Kim

SiYoung Choi

Robert Messinger

Current Institute