Group Members

Post-Doctoral Scholars


Dr. Chao Duan

Email: c.duan@berkeley.edu

I earned my BS in Financial Management from Zhejiang Ocean University in 2012, MS in Condensed Matter Physics from Ningbo University in 2015, and PhD in Chemistry and Physics of Polymers from Fudan University in 2018. As a Visiting Scholar in CBE, I am studying structure and dynamics of polyelectrolytes.

Graduate Students


Nikhil Agrawal

Email: nikhil.agrawal@berkeley.edu

I graduated with BS and MS in Chemical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi in 2018. My research is focused on explaining complex electrostatic phenomenon at charged interfaces using theories based in Statistical Mechanics.

Luofu Liu

Email: luofu_liu@berkeley.edu

I earned my BS in Chemistry from Beihang University, China in 2019. The goal of my research is to develop molecular theories to study complex polymer networks.

Takashi Yokokura

Email: takashi.yokokura@berkeley.edu

NSF Graduate Research Fellow

I graduated with my BS in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University in 2020. I study the effect of chain architecture on polyelectrolyte conformations in poor solvents, the conformational transitions in polyelectrolyte brushes, and the effect of interacting polyelectrolyte brushes in multivalent environments. I also collaborate with Prof. Sanjay Kumar's group on the effect of protein composition in neurofilaments.

Ian Woolsey

Email: iwoolsey@berkeley.edu

I graduated with my BS in Chemistry from Purdue University in 2022. My research aims to understand charged systems using molecular simulation and theory.

Alumni


Dr. Chao Fang

Dr. Fang was a post-doctoral scholar from Aug 2018 — Jan 2024. While in the group, Chao worked on molecular simulations and theories to understand the double layer structure and interfacial properties of charged systems.

Dr. Zach Lipel

Dr. Lipel was a graduate student from Aug 2018 — Dec 2023 co-advised with Prof. Kranthi Mandadapu. While in the group, Zach worked on a lipid bilayer theory explicitly accounting for membrane thickness.

Yao Yang

Yao was a visiting scholar from Oct 2019 — Dec 2020. While in the group, Yao worked on theories to explain complex electrokinetic phenomenon.