Raghunath Chelakkot

Biography

Raghunath Chelakkot Assistant Professor

Research Interest

My research interests are broadly classified into three categories 1. Driven Soft matter Micron-scaled soft particles such as polymers, filaments, colloids and soft shells, driven by an external flow display rich dynamical behaviors in various physical environments. We study these systems using a hybrid stochastic-hydrodynamic simulation scheme, called Multiparticle Collision Dynamics (MPC). 2. Active matter The individual components of active matter propel themselves using a continuous supply of energy, either generated internally or absorbed from the environment, and display highly dynamic, out-of-equilibrium patterns and structures. Collection of swimming bacteria, motor driven intercellular filaments, oscillating cilia and flagella and synthetic self propelling colloidal particles are a few examples of these systems. In many cases, their collective behavior can be studied from a condensed matter perspective, by including an ‘active’ term to each individual elements and by taking care of their interactions. We study these systems by a combination of analytical and numerical techniques. 3. Physics of sentient systems Many of the biological systems in nature actively respond to sensory inputs and regulate their movements (such as growth and locomotion) accordingly. However, their response is limited by their intrinsic physical and mechanical constraints. In many cases the observed growth shape or locomotive behavior of a given organism is a result of these two factors, namely the sensitivity to the external input and the physical constraints. We are interested to study the diverse active movements observed in nature and try to understand them from this perspective.