In this joint Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering and WIN Seminar Series, Dr. Neelesh A. Patankar will discuss his work on computational biophyscis of organisms and organ physiology. Dr. Patankar is Professor and Associate Chair of Mechancial Engineering at Northwestern University, in the United States.
Computational biophysics of organisms and organ physiology
New numerical algorithms for the movement of immersed solid bodies in fluids have been developed in our group. A novel constraint-based formulation of this computational approach will be briefly presented. We have applied these techniques to study variety of problems. The talk will focus on two problems. The first involves application at organism-level to understand aquatic locomotion. The second involves application at organ-level to understand esophageal transport. In the first problem, some of our key results pertaining to the role of hydrodynamics in the evolution of fish form and function, with application to robotics, will be discussed. In the second problem, examples of how biophysical simulations were useful to gain fundamental insights into the role of muscle activation, muscle fiber architecture, and mucosal layer in esophagus physiology will be presented.
Professor Patankar is currently the Associate Chair of Mechanical Engineering Department at Northwestern University. He is a member of Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics (by courtesy) and of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics Program.
His group research is focused on four primary missions: First, to develop fully resolved computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques to simulate muscle activated movement of organisms (e.g. knifefish, zebrafish) and organs (e.g. esophagus). Second, to use theory and CFD to understand the neural control of movement, to design novel underwater vehicles, and to interrogate the evolution of fish form and function. Third, to establish the foundational science of controlling phase (anti-icing, anti-frosting, boiling, condensation, non-wetting supehydrophobic surfaces) using surface roughness and chemistry. Fourth, to establish new metrics to quantify the mileage efficiency and greenhouse emissions of automotive vehicles.
His publications have been cited over 9000 times and he was awarded as the Fellow of 2012 from the American Physical Society. He is also recognized with McCormick Teaching Excellence award of 2014.