I received my PhD in Physics in 2007 from the University of Exeter in the UK where I studied frustration phenomena in liquid crystals as part of the Electromagnetic Materials group. I then spent two years as a postdoctoral scholar at Case Western Reserve University in the Rosenblatt group contributing to a diverse range of projects: from the Rayleigh-Taylor instability to direct imaging of liquid crystalline order via the technique of Optical Nanotomography. I am now Assistant Professor of Physics at Tufts.

My research interests encompass the broad field of soft condensed matter from simulating phase-separation induced structure formation in biologically-inspired systems to understanding the physics of bistable liquid crystal devices for applications like electronic paper.

A common theme through much of my research is the notion of “frustration”, which is where competing influences on a system favor incompatible states. These influences might include the elastic response to imposed distortion, applied electric or magnetic fields, geometric constraints such as surfaces, and phase behaviour e.g. mixing versus separation if more than one material is present. The frustration is resolved by pattern formation—division into domains, the appearance of stripes, etc.—frequently with visually beautiful results as the above images illustrate.  In my work, I seek to understand the physics that drives the pattern formation, and which parameters that I can control such as material constants, field strengths, are significant in selecting the final structure.