Soft Matter, Biophysics and Nonlinear Dynamics

In the late 19th century, the seminal work of Boltzmann introduced statistical approach in physics to develop a theory for macroscopic thermal systems in equilibrium. Much interest in the past century focussed on developing the theory of phase transitions seen in variety of physical systems. Beyond classic studies of magnets and fluids, lot of other exotic systems like polymers, colloids, liquid crystals (popularly known as soft matter) got active theoretical attention. In parallel the study of random (stochastic) processes in time, starting with classic diffusion, got extended over the years to include variety of non-equilibirum processes, as they do not obey Boltzmann statistics. These include dynamics of granular matter, driven diffusion, vehicular traffic, and most active biological processes spanning from cellular to population levels. Apart from that another interesting development of the past century was study of non-linear phenomena. Members of this subgroup are actively involved in research on areas like soft matter, biophysics, and non-linear dynamics.

Focus areas include

Soft Matter - Polymer Physics; Granular Matter; Dynamics of Driven poly-crystals

Biological Physics -  Active Matter;  Gene Regulation and Gene Expression;  Epigenetics and Chromatin Organisation;  Dynamics of cytoskeletal filaments;  Cellular traffic;  Mechanics of cell division in bacteria and eukaryotes;  Shape transformations via membrane protein interaction;  Modeling in developmental biology

Nonlinear Dynamics - Elctrical circuits; Electrochemical systems; Stochastic delay differential equations