Principal Investigator

Atul N. Parikh
Professor of Applied Science
Applied Science Department
3007 Engineering III
University of California, Davis
Davis, CA 95616 usa
Phone: 1 (530) 754-7055
Fax: 1 (530) 752-2444
Email: anparikh@ucdavis.edu

Curriculum Vitae: 2007 CV PDF
NSF 2-page CV: 2007CV
Biography: Short Bio PDF
PDFs require the free Adobe Reader.

Teaching

• How Things Work: Conceptual Physics, Eng 010
• Optical Properties of Materials, EAD 169
• Optical Methods in Biophysics, EAD 172 and EAD271

Research

• Membrane Bioengineering: (a) phospholipid based strategies in the design of new materials and tools for life science research; (b) functional dynamics in phospholipid media (protein-membrane interactions, protein aggregation); (c) optical transduction of membrane based sensing; (d) ion-channel based devices; (e) bio-inspired assemblies for solar energy utilization
• Membrane Biophysics: (a) vesicle rupture and lipid spreading at structured surfaces; (b) curvature, tension, electrostatics, and chemical transoformation-induced phase separation and its dynamics; (c) functional consequences of membrane heterogeneity; (d) membrane-protein interactions; (e) membrane-nanoparticle interactions.
• Organic-Inorganic Materials: functionalized microporous and mesoporous silica materials and sol-gel thin-films as supports and stabilizing scaffolds for biomaterials
• General Soft Condensed Matter: (a) comparative studies of phase transitions in chain-based organic molecular assemblies including monolayers, bilayers, vesicles, multilayered organic-inorganics, and liquid-crystals; (b) experimental studies of wetting and spreading at structured surfaces; (c) wetting transitions; and (d) nucleation, growth, and kinetics of aggregation in reduced dimensions.

Selected Recent Professional Services

• 2007 Panel Reviewer, Ruth-Kirchstein Graduate and Post-Doctoral Fellowship, NIH
• 2007 Panel Reviewer, NSF Career Award Fellowships, Biomaterials
• 2007 Panel reviewer, Solar Energy Utilization, BES, DOE
• 2006 2nd Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Nanomedicine: Experimental Nanomedicine, Washington, D.C.
• 2006 Discussant for AAAS Symposium on Nanobiotechnology
• 2006 Guest Co-Editor (with J. T. Groves) for MRS Bulletin Issue on Membrane Materials Science.
• 2006-2009 Program Review Committee, Lujan Neutron Scattering Center, Los Alamos National Laboratory
• 2005-2008 National Visiting Committee, Southwest Center for Microelectronic Education, Albuquerque, NM
• 2005-2008 User Executive Committee, Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (CINT), Sandia /Los Alamos National Labs
• 2005 Co-organizer (with M. Demirel), ICAM Workshop on Bio-inspired Nanomaterials, Penn State, 2005
• 2004 Special Emphasis Panel Reviewer, Nanoscience and Nanotechnology in Biotechnology and Medicine, NIH
• 2004 Physical Bioscience Division Review Committee, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
• 2003- ICAM (Inst. for the Complex Adaptive Matter) Fellow Selection Committee
• 2004 Panelist, Nanoscience in Biotechnology and Medicine, Regional Life Sciences Summit, Sacramento
• 2004 Co-organizer and Co-chair, "Life-Like Matter" An Institute for Complex Adaptive Matter Workshop, Santa Fe, NM
• 2004 Co-organizer and chair for (1) Optical Probes for Life Science Research, Materials Research Society, San Francisco, CA (2) Nanotech2004 Symposium, Boston, MA; and (3) Nanotech2003, San Francisco, CA
• 2003 Co-organizer and co-chair, Adamson's Symposium Honoring Dave Allara and Ralph Nuzzo, American Chemical Society (with M. Grunze)
• 2003 Co-chair, UC System-wide Biomedical Engineering Symposium, San Diego, CA
• 2003 Recognized as a team member for the development and establishment of Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, Sandia National Labs and Los Alamos National Lab partnership
• 2002 Invited Guest Editorial Assistant, Special Issue on Biomolecular Interfaces, Langmuir, ACS