This National Science Foundation project grant of $270,000 will fund research at the University of California, Berkeley from August 2022 to July 2026 under the Engineering (47.041) federal grant program. The research aims to study particle adsorption dynamics at fluid interfaces under microgravity conditions aboard the International Space Station. Specifically, the grant will support experiments to elucidate how particles attach to droplets in the absence of sedimentation effects and develop...
This $250,000 federal Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) will fund research to investigate the motion and self-propulsion of "Marangoni surfers" on spherical liquid interfaces, such as levitating water droplets in microgravity aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The primary objective is to establish a computational-experimental framework to study the complex interactions between active particle motion,...
This National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) Project Grant award of $120,000 to the University of Maryland, College Park provides funding to characterize and model the role of interfaces in suspension dynamics. The goal is to develop a new understanding of capillary dynamics when solid non-Brownian particles are dispersed in a Newtonian liquid phase. The research will use state-of-the-art experimental studies coupled with numerical simulations to advance the...
This $420,000 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) supports collaborative research on the effects of microgravity conditions on crystal growth and particle self-assembly during directional solidification of solutions. The research aims to reveal the subtle forces involved in these processes when gravity is removed, and compare the structural features obtained in microgravity versus on Earth. The research will integrate experimental...
This $220,000 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) aims to advance the understanding of how soft, deformable particles, such as oil droplets and cells, move through complex environments consisting of narrow constrictions and obstacles. The award to Emory University will systematically investigate the flow of bubbles and droplets through obstacle arrays, studying the effects of particle surface tension, obstacle density, size, and...
The National Science Foundation awarded a $726,224 project grant to the University of Notre Dame du Lac through the Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) to support research on plasmonic bubble-enabled nanoparticle deposition under microgravity conditions from September 1, 2022 to August 31, 2025. The University will leverage the fluid flow dynamics around thermal bubbles on surfaces in microgravity to concentrate and deposit target molecules, with the aim of enhancing detectability for applications...
This National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) Project Grant award, totaling $920,715, aims to elucidate the roles of gravity on the freezing dynamics of sessile drops in the presence of soluble and insoluble particles. The research will be conducted at the University of Illinois and involve several key tasks: fabricating samples and solutions for experiments on the International Space Station (ISS), coordinating with NASA to prepare the experimental rig, overseeing...
This $320,000 federal Project Grant, awarded by the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041), supports collaborative research between Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and other institutions to study crystal growth and particle self-assembly during directional solidification in microgravity conditions on the International Space Station (ISS). The research aims to reveal the subtle forces involved in growing solvent crystals and forming particle assemblies, which...
This $347,379 federal Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) aims to investigate the transport and aggregation of non-volatile particles in drying colloidal sessile drops. The award supports research to examine the motion of particles suspended in evaporating droplets and link the particle transport to the final deposition patterns. The planned studies include high-fidelity numerical simulations and theoretical analyses to understand...
The Johns Hopkins University was awarded a $425,000 Project Grant from the National Science Foundation Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems to support research titled "FIELD MEDIATED ASSEMBLY OF ANISOTROPIC COLLOIDS ON SURFACES" from July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2024. Under this award, The Johns Hopkins University will conduct research focused on controlling the assembly of anisotropic colloidal particles on surfaces using external fields. This work...