Thank you for visiting my website. I am an Associate Professor of Physics at Wayne State University, Detroit, MI. My research is in the area of experimental soft matter physics. Our laboratory primarily uses various optical techniques to probe the structure and dynamics of soft materials.

Soft matters are used in everyday life. A famous scientist once said that “biology is soft matter and ATP.” P-G de Gennes (Nobel prize, 1991) had described these materials as having large response function so that a mild external influence has a large effect. Many fascinating and useful properties of soft matter result from interaction among the constituents, which has energy of the order of thermal energy, k_BT equal to about 4 pN.nm.

The scope of soft matter research is broader than physics, which involves some fluid physics, chemistry, statistical mechanics, crystallography, computer simulation, etc. The students use a broad range of experimental techniques, including femto-second laser spectroscopy, confocal microscopy, atomic force microscopy, scattering techniques, rheology, ellipsometry, transmission electron microscopy, Langmuir-Blodgett method, among others. They develop skills in data analysis, computer image processing & simulation, electronics, machine design, computer control of instruments, surface chemistry, nano & microparticle synthesis, functionalization, and characterization, etc. The alumni from our group have obtained positions in academia, industry, national labs, and medical schools.

We are currently looking for graduate and ungraduate students. If interested, please contact me at ashis@wayne.edu.