Faculty Directory

Contact Information

Office:
Olin Hall, 215
Phone: +1-508-831-5090
Fax: +1-508-831-5776
sak@wpi.edu

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Stephan A. Koehler

I am an experimentalist, so it is just natural that what excites me most is working together with students to perform a great experiment. This starts with a firm grasp of the background, followed by the execution, which combines hardware, software and analytics. When things click, both the students and I get a deep appreciation of how rich and beautiful even the simplest things can be. Sharing these insights and excitement is what great teaching is all about.

I have collaborated with a variety of different colleagues on campus on a variety of interesting projects, such as computational work on the physics of swimming, mechanical properties of tissue biopsies, dense granular flow and soft robotics. All of these projects involved undergraduates, and several has resulted in MQP awards. If you are interested in finding out research opportunities, please contact me.

Research Interests

  • Soft condensed matter
  • Applied physics
  • Granular materials

Education

  • BS, University of Michigan 1989
  • PhD, University of Chicago 1997

Featured Publications

  • "Longitudinal dispersion in mono- and bidisperse foams" Soft Matter 6, p 3841 (2010)
  • "Rheology of evolving bidisperse granular media" Physical Review E 83, p 041305 (2011)
  • "The effect of fine particles on the drainage and coarsening of foam" Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochem. Eng. Aspects 344 p 15 (2009)
  • "Micro-swimmers with hydrodynamic interactions" Mathematical and Computer Modelling dpi:10.1016/j.mcm.2010.04.002
  • "Rheology of Steady-State Draining Foams" Physical Review Letters 100 p 208301 (2008)

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