Join the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering for a fall seminar on Wednesday, November 7 from 3:15–4:30 p.m. in Perlstein Hall Auditorium. Ranga Narayanan will deliver a lecture titled “Faraday Instability at Liquid-Fluid Interfaces – Physical Phenomena, Mathematical Modeling, Experimental Evaluation.”
Resonance driven instability or Faraday instability occurs when vertically stacked fluid bilayers are subject to periodic forcing in a direction that is normal to their common interface. The forcing can arise from several means, for example, by mechanical motion, by acoustic means, or even via electrostatic fields. The instability at the interface, which is manifested by ordered patterns, has its origins in the resonance between the imposed frequency and the system’s natural frequency. Our talk will focus on a comparison between theory and experiments showing remarkable agreement between the two.
Narayanan is a Distinguished Professor and Distinguished Teacher-Scholar at the University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida. His research is in the area of pattern formation. This field has applications ranging from earth science, to the making of materials in outer space and on earth, to biomedical science and even to cell biology. As an engineer, Narayanan is concerned with science questions as to how length and time scales compete to form patterns and what fundamental connections can be made between the various physical situations that generate patterns. Applications of his research include ways to “tune” patterns to create better and useful products such as better drug delivery systems and better semiconductor and energy efficient devices. As a result of his work he now directs a major National Science Foundation research training “center” grant in the field of patterns in fluids and interfacial science that has affected over 35 doctoral students in the College of Engineering. In addition to research, this project seeks to internationalize graduate education.
Ranga has more than two hundred published papers and conference presentations and four authored and edited books. He serves as an executive editor of the Journal of Engineering Mathematics and is on the editorial board of several scholarly journals. In addition he has been invited several times as a visiting faculty to major universities in France, Japan, Germany, Belgium, Israel, and India. Among his many awards are the A.v. Humboldt Senior Award (2016), J.W. Fulbright Distinguished Chair Fellowship (Israel 2012), European Commission Senior Scientist (2011-12), Distinguished Foreign Scientist Award from the Government of India (2011), a Chevron Chair at IIT Madras (2011), Japan Society for Science Foundation Fellowship (2009), J.W. Fulbright Senior Scholar Fellowship (Belgium, 2001), and Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship (1989). He is a fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and has been elected as Academician to the International Aeronautics Academy (2012).
The University of Florida has honored him with a Distinguished Professorship (2013), Edie Professorship (2012), Distinguished Teaching Scholar (2009), Florida Blue Key Distinguished Faculty Award (2010), an International (2012), International Educator of the Year Senior Faculty Award (2012), a UF Research Foundation Professorship (2002), a Chemical Eng. Department Charles Stokes Professorship (2003), two College of Eng. Teaching Awards (1995, 2000), a Professorial Excellence Award (1998), and a Teaching Incentive Program Award (1995).