The Benjamin Levich Institute for Physico-Chemical Hydrodynamics is a research institute located on the campus of the City College of New York (CCNY), the flagship school of the City University of New York. The Institute is comprised of five faculty from CCNY – Jeff Morris (director) and Charles Maldarelli (both from Chemical Engineering) and Joel Koplik, Mark Shattuck, and Hernan Makse (all from the Physics Department), and associated graduate and postdoctoral students. The faculty work co-operatively on interdisciplinary problems in soft matter physics, including fluid and granular mechanics, molecular dynamics simulations, interfacial science and network and data science theory.

Current research interests focus on friction in flows of dense suspensions of  particles, the microrheology of complex fluids,  self-propelled (active) colloidal engines, the dynamics and self-assembly of colloids  at fluid interfaces, microfluidics in lab on a chip devices, static and  dynamic transitions  of jammed states of non-spherical and deformable particles,  jamming dynamics in sediment transport,  neural networks of the brain and the spread of information over social networks.

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A geolocation based visualization of a nation-wide Mexican mobile network (Hernan Makse)

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Using machine learning and statistical physics to predict human behavior (Hernan Makse)

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Network theory applied to the brain (Hernan Makse)

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Jammed matter studied by Edwards statistical mechanism (Hernan Makse)

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Packing states of particles with different geometries (Hernan Makse)

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Jamming of deformable polygons (Mark Shattuck)

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Granular packing mesh (Mark Shattuck)

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Formation of a tail bud in granular packing (Mark Shattuck)

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Hydrodynamic erosion of sediment in turbulent flow. (Mark Shattuck)

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Molecular dynamics simulations of cooling of metal-metalloids alloys (Mark Shattuck)

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Deformable particles like cells can fill complex geometries more efficiently than fixed shapes like circles. (Mark Shattuck)

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Simulation of rheology of a polydisperse suspension (Jeffrey Morris)

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Simulation of rheology of dense suspensions of particles with attractive forces. (Jeffrey Morris)

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Simulation of suspension viscosity in the transition between lubrication to frictional rheology (Jeffrey Morris)

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Simulations of shear thickening in dense suspensions including the role of friction due to particle-particle contacts (Jeffrey Morris)

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Microparticle arrays for lab-on-chip diagnostic assays (Charles Maldarelli)

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Hydrodynamics of interaction of colloids attached to a particle surface (Charles Maldarelli)

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Hydrodynamics of a particle translating and rotating on a surface of a thin film (Charles Maldarelli)

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Minimalist design of tripeptide esterase artificial enzymes (Charles Maldarelli)

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Chemical herding for maritime oil spill remediation (Charles Maldarelli)

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Molecular configuration snapshot (Top) and density profile (Bottom) at a liquid/liquid interface; (Left) weak attraction between the two fluid’s molecules, (Right) pure repulsion. (Joel Koplik)

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Ingredients in a calculation of colloidal motion at the liquid/vapor interface of a thin film. (Joel Koplik)

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Janus colloidal locomotor moving along a solid wall (Joel Koplik)

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Random sequential adsorption simulation of hexamer molecules at a liquid/vapor interface. Extracting the lattice gas equation of state from RSA simulations using the Gibbs adsorption isotherm (Joel Koplik)

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Transport through a geological fracture with self-affine rough walls; (Left) fluid velocity map, (Right) trajectories of suspended and trapped particles (Joel Koplik)

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Side view/top view of the final states for various drops impacting a solid surface; left to right: pure liquid, 21% particulate suspension, 42% suspension and particle-coated drop. (Joel Koplik)

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Splash patterns for liquid drops on a patterned surface; (Left) non-wetting cross on a wetting background, (Right) wetting cross on a non-wetting background. (Joel Koplik)

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Trajectory of an active Janus particle swimming and diffusing near a wall (Joel Koplik)

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Jeffrey MorrisThe Morris Lab
specializes in the several facets of complex fluid flows. Current research includes frictional rheology (including shear thickening),  microrheology, inertial migration, contact line studies, oscillatory and polydisperse rheology using theoretical, simulation and experimental techniques.

Joel KoplikThe Koplik Lab
focuses its research interest on Nanoscale fluid mechanics,  Colloidal and swimming particles, Porous media flows Superfluids, and Statistical mechanics

Hernan MakseThe Makse Lab
is interested in the theoretical understanding of Complex Systems from a Statistical Physics viewpoint. We are working towards the development of new emergent laws for complex systems, ranging from brain networks and biological networks to social systems. 

Charles MaldarelliThe Maldarelli Lab
 centers principally on interfacial and colloidal phenomena at the micro and nanoscale. Current research projects include Active Matter, Microfluidics, Colloidal Hydrodynamics, Green Chemistry, Monoclonal Antibodies, and Peptide Self-Assembly and Catalysis.

Mark ShattuckThe Shattuck Lab
studies flowing granular material using a combination of laboratory experiments, molecular dynamics, and numeric integration of continuum models. One of the goals of our research is to create simple systems which elucidate important physics.