Computational Soft Condensed Matter

In the Computational Soft Matter group we work at the intersection of chemistry, biology, physics, and materials science, leveraging tools from statistical mechanics, continuum descriptions and high-performance computing.

Our goal is to understand the fundamental principles of the collective phenomena leading to controlled assembly and self-organization in soft matter, including biological materials.

We thank our sponsors for supporting our research:

April 2024

• Chiraz‘ paper on the Self-Assembly of Rod-Coil-Rod Block Copolymers in a Coil-Selective Solvent has been published in Soft Matter!

 

• Carlos‘ paper on the Structure and Organization of Amphiphilic Mikto-Grafted Molecular Brushes at Liquid/Liquid Planar Interfaces has been published in Macromolecules!

March 2024

• Carlos, Aldo and Grant presented their research at the APS March Meeting in Minneapolis.
  
  

February 2024

• The group welcomes Lorenzo Abelar  as an Undergraduate Research Student. He will be doing research on the Bottlebrush Block Copolymers at Interfaces.

September 2023

• Carlos‘ paper on the Conformations of Comb-like Polymers in Solution has been published in The Journal of Chemical Physics!

 

• The group welcomes Josiah Sparks  as a Master’s Research Student. He will be doing research on the self-assembly of Janus colloids in nematic liquid crystals.

 

• The group welcomes Dawson Johnson as an Undergraduate Research Student. He will be doing research on the self-assembly of Janus colloids at liquid-liquid interfaces.

March 2023

• Carlos Padilla and Carlos Salinas presented their research at the APS March Meeting in Las Vegas.
  

February 2023

• Tae-Yi’s paper on the Solution Self-Assembly of ABCBA Pentablock Copolymers has been published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry B!

January 2023

• The group welcomes Chiraz Toujani as a Graduate Research Student. She will be doing research on Self-Assembly of Amphiphilic Molecular Polymers in Solution.

November 2022

• The group welcomes Grant Kolacny as an Undergraduate Research Student. He will be doing research on the solution self-assembly of pentablock copolymers.

September 2022

• The group welcomes Aldo Vasquez Briceno as a Graduate Research Student. He will be doing research on Polymer-Stabilized Liquid-Liquid Interfaces using atomistic simulations.
  

• Carlos Andres’ paper on the Hydrophobic Solute Encapsulation by Amphiphilic Mikto-Grafted Bottlebrushes has been published in ACS Applied Polymer Materials!

May 2022

• The group welcomes Marisol Dorado as an Undergraduate Research Student. She will be doing research on Complex Polymers at Liquid-Liquid Interfaces.

April 2022

• The group welcomes Carlos Padilla as an Undergraduate Research Student. He will be doing research on Polymer-Stabilized Oil-Water Emulsions.

January 2022

• The group welcomes Ivana Herrera as an Undergraduate Research Student. She will be doing research on Encapsulation of Anisotropic Solutes by Complex Polymers .

• The group welcomes Sarah Anzaldua as an Undergraduate Research Student. She will be doing research on the Complex Polymers at Liquid-Liquid Interfaces.

December 2021

• Luis and Andres paper on the Dynamics and phase behavior of two-dimensional size-asymmetric binary mixtures has been published in The Journal of Chemical Physics!

November 2021

• The group welcomes Tae-Yi as a Visiting Graduate Research Assistant. She will be doing research on solution self-assembly of pentablock polymers.

April 2021

• Nour and Aldo are presenting their research at the ACS Spring 2021 meeting!

January 2021

• The group welcomes Carlos A. Salinas Soto as a Graduate Student. He will be doing research on polymers with complex architectures.

November 2020

• Luis‘ paper on the Phase behavior of 2D colloidal nanocrystals is out!

June 2020

• The group welcomes Christina Zhang as an Undergraduate Research Student. She will be doing research on the Numerical Modeling of Liquid Crystals.

• The group welcomes Shayma Mersani as an Undergraduate Research Student. She will be working on Self-Assembly of Peptide-Amphiphiles.

• The group welcomes Andres Leon Islas as an Undergraduate Research Student. He will be working on Liquid-Liquid Phase Separation of Synthetic an Bio-Polymers.

May 2020

• The group welcomes Aldo Vasquez as an Undergraduate Research Student. He will be doing research on Self-Assembly of Chlorophyll-based Materials.

• The group welcomes Isaac Castro as an Undergraduate Research Student. He will be working on Reaction-Diffusion Processes and Dynamic Self-Assembly.

• The group welcomes Alberto Samaniego as a Research Student. He will be doing research on  the Self-Assembly  of Polymers with Complex Architectures.

May 2020

• Bahar‘s paper on the Self-Assembly of Mikto-Grafted Bottlebrushes has been published!

March 2020

• Luis‘ paper on the Phase behavior of a two-dimensional core-softened system is out!

January 2020

• The group welcomes Nour Alhraki as an Undergraduate Research Student. She will be doing research on rod-coil block polymer self-assembly.

• The group welcomes Jesse Funkhouser as an Undergraduate Research Student. He will be doing research on binary mixtures of nanoparticles.

October 2019

• The group welcomes Zahra Rajabi as PhD student. She will be doing research on self-assembly of colloidal materials.

September 2019

• The group welcomes Sarah Pew as an Undergraduate Research Student. She will be doing research on reaction-diffusion phenomena and dissipative self-assembly.

June 2019

• The group welcomes Juan G. Leon Islas as an Undergraduate Research Student. He will be working on coarse-grained models of polymers with complex architecture.

Dr. Abelardo Ramirez-Hernandez
Assistant Professor

Chemical Engineering Program
Department of Biomedical Engineering
University of Texas at San Antonio
One UTSA Circle
AET 1.102
San Antonio, TX 78249-0670
Phone: (210) 458-8531