Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering

PhD 2013, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

 

 

 

Contact Information

Office POST 207A
Phone (808) 956-3298
E-mail uspal@hawaii.edu
Research Website http://www2.hawaii.edu/~uspal

 

Education

Postdoctoral Associate, Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Germany, 2013-2018
Ph.D., Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2013
B.Phil., Engineering Physics, Mathematics, & Philosophy, University of Pittsburgh, 2007

 

Research Interests

  • microhydrodynamics
  • statistical mechanics
  • active matter
  • self-organization
  • soft matter simulation

 

Selected Publications

  1. M. N. Popescu, W. E. Uspal, C. Bechinger, and P. Fischer, “Chemotaxis of nanoparticles”, Nano Lett., accepted.
  2. J. B. Arrieta, A. Revilla-Guarinos, W. E. Uspal, and J. Simmchen, “Bacterial biohybrid Microswimmers”, Front. Robot. AI, 5, 97 (2018).
  3. B. Bet, R. Georgiev, W. E. Uspal, H. B. Eral, R. van Roij, and S. Samin, “Calculating the motion of highly confined, arbitary-shaped particles in Hele-Shaw channels”, Microfluid. Nanofluid., 22, 77 (2018).
  4. D. P. Singh, W. E. Uspal, M. N. Popescu, L. G. Wilson, and P. Fischer, “Photogravitactic microswimmers”, Adv. Funct. Mater., 28, 1706660 (2018).
  5. W. E. Uspal, M. N. Popescu, and M. Tasinkevych, and S. Dietrich, “Shape-dependent guidance of active Janus particles by chemically patterned surfaces”, New J. Phys., 20, 015013 (2018).
  6. J. Katuri, W. E. Uspal, J. Simmchen, A. Miguel-Lopez, and S. Sanchez, “Cross-stream migration of active particles”, Science Advances, 4, eaao1755 (2018).
  7. N. Popescu, W. E. Uspal, and S. Dietrich, “Perils of ad hoc approximations for the activity function of chemically powered colloids”, Eur. Phys. J. E, 40, 1 (2017).
  8. M. N. Popescu, W. E. Uspal, and S. Dietrich, “Chemically active colloids near osmotic-responsive walls with surface-chemistry gradients”, J. Phys.: Condens. Matt., 29, 134001 (2017).
  9. X. Ma, S. Jang, M. N. Popescu, W. E. Uspal, A. Miguel-Lopez, K. Hahn, D.-P. Kim, and S. Sanchez, “Reversed Janus Micro/Nano-Motors with Internal Chemical Engine”, ACS Nano, 10, 8751 (2016).
  10. W. E. Uspal, M. N. Popescu, S. Dietrich, and M. Tasinkevych, “Guiding catalytically active particles with chemically patterned surfaces”, Phys. Rev. Lett., 117, 048002 (2016).
  11. J. Simmchen, J. Katuri, W. E. Uspal, M. N. Popescu, M. Tasinkevych, and S. Sanchez, “Topographical pathways guide chemical microswimmers”, Nature Comm., 7, 10598 (2016).
  12. M. N. Popescu, W. E. Uspal, and S. Dietrich, “Self-diffusiophoresis of chemically active colloids”, Eur. Phys. J. Special Topics, 225, 2189 (2016).
  13. W. E. Uspal, M. N. Popescu, S. Dietrich, and M. Tasinkevych, “Rheotaxis of spherical active particles near a planar wall”, Soft Matter, 11, 6613 (2015).
  14. W. E. Uspal, M. N. Popescu, S. Dietrich, and M. Tasinkevych, “Self-propulsion of a catalytically active particle near a planar wall: from reflection to sliding and hovering”, Soft Matter, 11, 434 (2015).
  15. W. E. Uspal and P.S. Doyle, “Self-organizing microfluidic crystals”, Soft Matter, 10, 5177 (2014).
  16. W. E. Uspal, H. B. Eral and P.S. Doyle, “Engineering particle trajectories in microfluidic flows using particle shape”, Nature Comm., 4, 2666 (2013).
  17. J. S. Leith, A. Tafvizi, F. Huang, W. E. Uspal, P. S. Doyle, A. R. Fersht, L. A. Mirny, and A. M. van Oijen, “Sequence-dependent sliding kinetics of p53”, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 109, 16552-16557 (2012).
  18. W. E. Uspal and P. S. Doyle, “Collective dynamics of small clusters of particles flowing in a quasi-two-dimensional microchannel”, Soft Matter, 8, 10676-10686 (2012).
  19. W. E. Uspal and P. S. Doyle, “Nonlinear Bound States of Hydrodynamically Coupled Particles in a Narrow Channel”, Phys. Rev. E, 85, 016325 (2012).
  20. A. Alexeev, W. E. Uspal and A. C. Balazs, “Harnessing Janus Nanoparticles to Create Controllable Pores in Membranes”, ACS Nano, 2, 1117 (2008).
  21. K. A. Smith and W. E. Uspal, “Shear-driven release of a bud from a multicomponent vesicle”, J. Chem. Phys., 126, 075102 (2007).

 

Courses Offered

  • ME311 – Thermodynamics, Fall 2018
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