Winter 2021

Jin Yu is an Assistant Professor of Physics & Astronomy. 

Bio-molecular machines are reminiscent of life’s fundamental delicacies in molecular design. They are made by nano- to micrometer scale protein complexes with cyclic functional cycles of mechano-chemistry, being able to achieve comparatively high energy efficiency and accuracy, and balance well between functions and constraints in cellular environment and under evolution. Our researches have been focused on revealing physical mechanisms underlying some of these protein complexes and machinery.

By utilizing computational biophysics approaches, including a spectrum of molecular modeling and simulation techniques, statistical mechanics, and stochastic methods, we aim at providing insights that would help us to better understand physics of living systems, and also enabling artificial redesign of biomolecular systems for a variety of purposes in bio-medical researches.

Winter 2021

Seunghyun (Seu) Sim is an Assistant Professor in Chemistry, Biomedical Engineering and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. 

Our program focuses on the development of living biomaterials by integrating synthetic biology (genetic engineering) with synthetic soft materials (molecular engineering). In recent years, a myriad of genetically encoded biological modalities useful for therapeutics, imaging, sensing, and communication over various length scales have been discovered and engineered in the fields of molecular and synthetic biology. We will develop 3D-printed living composite materials (LCM) comprising immobilized, yet metabolically active, living microbial cells that perform engineered tasks. We will develop (1) LCMs producing and eluting therapeutic biomolecules in situ, as living drug delivery system, (2) microfluidic LCM devices for facile and reusable detection of biomarkers, and (3) a novel soft robotic system using controllable mechanical actuation and reconfiguration of LCMs.

Winter 2021

Michelle Digman is an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering 

Our research interests focus on 1) quantifying spatial and temporal Rac 1A and Rho-A activation during cell migration, 2) characterizing metabolic alterations in cancer and degenerative diseased cells and tissues, 3) correlating mitochondrial transport with cancer cell invasion, 4) fine-tuning cancer metabolism in response to matrix stiffness.

Winter 2021

Maxx Q. Arguilla is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry.

Our group will focus on understanding the chemistry and physics of solids in the bulk, at the nanoscale, and down to the atomic level.  We, therefore, seek to leverage the chemical and molecular control over atomic-level and nanoscale morphological dimensionalities in realizing confined electronic, optical, and quantum phenomena. Our vision is to take advantage of these tools and create classes of materials that will enable nanoscale confinement in bulk macroscale platforms.

Winter 2021

Herdeline Ann Ardoña is an Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. 

The Ardoña Research Group at UC Irvine aims to pioneer next-generation responsive and adaptive materials, which can be used as tools for unraveling biological mechanisms that involve action potential propagation and cellular mechanotransduction in contractile tissues, and pharmaco-/toxicokinetics across biological barrier tissues. We will capitalize on the biocompatibility and synthetic versatility offered by biomacromolecules to impart sensing or stimuli-responsive function on these materials.

Winter 2021

Howard (Ho Wai) Lee is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

The long-range goal of his research is to develop ways on using emerging active optical materials, nanostructures, and advanced nano-physics to actively control the optical properties of nano-optical structures (e.g., plasmonics, metasurfaces, zero-index/2D materials, optical fibers) for studying extreme light-matter interaction at the nanometer scale, as well as advancing next-generation optical imaging/display, sensing, energy, medical, and communication applications.

March 3, 2021 3pm: Matt Bovyn from the groups of Jun Allard and Steve Gross defended his PhD thesis on “Intracellular cargo transport is determined by motors, cargo, and environment”. Congratulations!

We encourage any student with an interest in applying to a Physics or Astronomy PhD program and ChAMP program and those who identify as part of an underrepresented group in physics or astronomy to attend our Office Hours with the Grad Admission Committee is scheduled on December 5, 2020.

The short application is due Dec 1, 5pm Pacific Time, and accepted applications to attend the office hour will be notified by Dec 3 with details about the zoom connection.

Application can be accessed here.

Saturday November 21, 2020: Information Session (Open to All)

Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Irvine will be hosting an information session about the physics graduate program, including a discussion on the ChAMP program. You will learn about the research opportunities in our program, the application procedure, and our current graduate student experience.

Physics and Astronomy Department Graduate Program Open House, November 19, 2022