Research Rotations

  1. Faculty Name: Rizal Hariadi
    Theoretical
    Research Area: Biological and Soft Matter Physics, Nanoscience and Materials Physics
    Research Title: DNA origami nanoarrays for studying biophysics
    Research/Project Short Description: This project, supported by the prestigious National Cancer Institute IMAT R61 program, is developing membrane-spanning molecular machines for non-invasive detection of exosomal microRNAs. At its core, the project harnesses advanced principles of membrane physics and optical fluorescence to create a lysis-free, isothermal amplification-enabled sensing platform. Ph.D. students engaged in this project will be helping in the design and characterization of different types of nanoarrays, such as DNA origami nanoarrays and zero-mode waveguides for digital assays of exosomes. Their work is pivotal in pioneering digital assays of exosomes, thereby bridging the gap between theoretical physics and practical biomedical applications, and pushing the boundaries of how physical principles can be applied to advance medical diagnostics.
  2. Faculty Name: Antia S. Botana
    Theoretical
    Research Area: Nanoscience and Materials Physics
    Research Title: Computational design of novel superconducting materials
    Research/Project Short Description: Superconductivity is a quantum state of matter whereby electrons move through a material without resistance. Superconducting materials are of paramount importance to different technologies: from magnetic resonance imaging machines to accelerators for high-energy physics, and magnetic levitating trains. However, their usefulness is often restricted by the prohibitively low temperatures at which superconductivity usually emerges. Increasing this transition temperature and discovering new superconductors has been limited by the lack of consensus as to what causes superconductivity in some classes of materials. One of these classes is represented by copper oxides whose discovery in the 1980s had a profound influence on physics as they could superconduct at a higher temperature than any material known at the time. This project will use advanced computational and theoretical methods to investigate nickel and palladium oxides - promising candidate materials for superconductivity based on the proximity of nickel and palladium to copper in the periodic table. The goal of the project is to discover a new family of superconductors while providing insights into the origin of high-temperature superconductivity. You will develop computational approaches suited for superconducting materials and perform simulations to establish the differences and similarities between the physics of nickel, palladium, and copper oxides. This project can be continued as your PhD topic. See some of our recent publications on this topic on our webpage or Google Scholar (Antia S. Botana).
  3. Faculty Name: Antia S. Botana
    Theoretical
    Research Area: Nanoscience and Materials Physics
    Research Title: Discovery and Control of Skyrmions in 2D van der Waals Magnets
    Research/Project Short Description: Magnetic skyrmions are topologically protected spin textures with exciting quantum properties towards information and neuro-inspired technologies. To date, the experimentally known skyrmionic platforms are restricted to bulk crystals and metallic multilayer films. The ultimate goal of this project is to realize skyrmions in two-dimensional (2D) and van der Waals layered materials and investigate emergent properties arising from their reduced dimensions. The project will use advanced computational methods (from density functional theory to Monte-Carlo) to study transition metal dihalide monolayers and their moiré superlattices as a platform for skyrmion realization. The goal of the project is to establish what hallmark characteristics are important for skyrmion formation in the monolayer and few-layer limit. You will be able to explore different mechanisms for skyrmion realization using computational techniques to achieve this goal: from inversion symmetry breaking in ferromagnetic monolayers to twisting. This project can be continued as your PhD topic. See some of our recent publications on this topic on our webpage or Google Scholar (Antia S. Botana).
  4. Faculty Name: Mouzhe Xie
    Experimental
    Research Area: Biological and Soft Matter Physics, Nanoscience and Materials Physics
    Research Title: Experimental Quantum BioSensing (EQuBS) lab -- quantum metrology and high precision measurement using nitrogen-vacancy defects in diamond crystal
    Research/Project Short Description: As a new lab, we always have cross-disciplinary research projects available to postdocs, graduates, and undergrads! Please refer to https://sites.google.com/view/equbs-lab/opportunities for the latest update. Please email Prof. Mouzhe Xie (mouzhe.xie@asu.edu) for inquiries and to discuss details.
  5. Faculty Name: Richard Lebed
    Theoretical
    Research Area: Cosmology, Particle, and Astrophysics
    Research Title: The Diabatic Dynamical Diquark Model
    Research/Project Short Description: The period since 2003 has provided the first confirmed evidence for hadrons that do not fit into the known categories of quark-antiquark mesons or three-quark baryons. (An elementary knowledge of these particle categories and their basic features is a required starting point for the student.) Dozens of tetraquark and pentaquark states have so far been discovered. The internal structure of these states, however, remains a topic of theoretical debate, and several competing physical pictures have been proposed, each with its strengths and deficiencies. In the “dynamical diquark model”, a tetraquark consists of two bound quasiparticles: a two-quark diquark and a two-antiquark antidiquark. The purpose of this rotation is to become versed in the published literature of models for ordinary hadrons that are most closely related to the dynamical diquark model, namely, color flux-tube models and Born-Oppenheimer (BO) potentials that have been applied in the past to ordinary hadrons, and to learn how one can go beyond the BO approximation (“diabatic”) when more than one substructure is possible. Time permitting, the student will study the details of how the mixing of substructures in the diabatic model is simulated using code.
  6. Faculty Name: Oliver Beckstein
    Theoretical
    Research Area: Biological and Soft Matter Physics
    Research Title: Effect of lipids on sound amplification in the inner ear
    Research/Project Short Description: Prestin is a membrane protein that plays a key role in the complicated process of sound amplification by outer hair cells (OHC) in the inner ear. Prestin changes its cross-sectional area in response to a change in transmembrane voltage and thus acts as a biological voltage-mechano transducer. The dense and compact arrangement of prestin within the OHC membrane leads to macroscopic changes in cell length even from modest variations in surface area when responding to depolarization signals. While previous experimental works have revealed several cryo-EM structures of prestin in compact/expanded states, the mechanism of surface area expansion at the atomic level remains unclear and in particular how different membrane lipids influence this process.



    In this project, you will investigate the lipid-protein interaction of prestin using coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations on high-performance computers (HPC). We aim to build a workflow for CG simulations of prestin with realistic lipid membernae compositions and develop code for subsequent data analysis to understand how charged/uncharged lipids cooperate with prestin in responding to external signals.