Microrheology

Rheology is the study of the flow of matter. It is an important and active field of research that spans numerous disciplines and technological applications. The aim of this work is to provide an introduction to the theory and practice of microrheology, a relatively new area of rheology. Eric M. Furst is a Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Delaware. Furst received his BS in Chemical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and his MS and Ph.D. from Stanford University. Prior to joining the faculty at Delaware in 2001, Furst studied biophysics as a postdoctoral fellow at Institut Curie, Paris. His research interests span a wide range of topics in soft matter science and engineering, but focus in particular on colloid science and rheology. He is the recipient of the 2013 Soft Matter Lectureship Award, the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal, and is a Fellow of the American Chemical Society. Todd Squires earned his dual bachelor degree in Physics and Russian Literature at UCLA, then spent a year as a Churchill Scholar at Cambridge University. He earned his Ph.D. in Physics from Harvard in 2002, spent three years as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Caltech, and joined the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 2005. His research group studies small-scale fluid mechanics and soft materials, both experimentally and theoretically, focusing on microfluidic systems, surfactant function and dysfunction in the lungs and in the field, and the manipulation of charges and particles in fluid environments. Honors include the NSF CAREER award, the Beckman Young Investigator, the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar award, and the inaugural GSOFT Early Career Award.