Meenakshi Dutt Research Group: People

Principal Investigator

Meenakshi Dutt

Phone:

848-445-5612

Email:

meenakshi.dutt_at_rutgers.edu

Education

Ph.D. in Physics, Duke University, USA (2002).
M.A. in Physics, Duke University, USA (1999).
M.Sc. In Physics, Indian Institute of Technology, India (1996).
B.Sc. In Physics, University of Delhi, India (1994).

Work Experience

Associate Professor, Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Rutgers University (July 2017 - present).
Editorial Board member, MRS Advances (Fall 2016 - present).
Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Rutgers University (July 2011 - Jun 2017).
Research Associate, University of Pittsburgh, USA (2009 - 2011).
Research Associate, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA (2007 - 2008).
Research Associate, Pfizer Institute of Pharmaceutical Materials Science, University of Cambridge, UK (2002 - 2007).

Dr. Meenakshi Dutt is an Associate Professor at Chemical and Biochemical Engineering. She obtained her B.Sc. from the University of Delhi, India followed by a M.Sc. from the Indian Institute of Technology—Delhi, India and her Doctorate in Physics from Duke University, USA.

Her research interests encompass the design and investigation of novel soft and biological materials with specific structure-function properties, such as charged colloidal systems, bio-inspired hybrid bio-nanomaterials and functionalized surfaces. The overall goal is to understand the role of physical interactions, molecular chemistry, multiscale spatial organization and dynamical processes underlying the equilibrium and non-equilibrium characteristics of these materials. These efforts are supported by the development and application of computational methods, models and characterization tools. The scientific outcomes of these studies can be harnessed to predict the inception of new hybrid soft and biological materials.

She is the recipient of the OpenEye Junior Faculty ACS COMP (August 2015) and the NSF CAREER award (2017). She was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in July 2017.

Graduate Students

Hooten, Mason

mh1314_at_scarletmail.rutgers.edu

Mason is working toward his PhD in the Biomedical Engineering program at Rutgers. He joined the lab in Spring 2020. He likes gardening and resolving at different scales.

Patel, Het

Het joined the lab as an MS student in 2024.

Shao, Yiwei

Yiwei joined the lab as an MS student in 2024. She also received her undergraduate degree from the Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering at Rutgers, and double majored in Economics. In her free time, she enjoys digital drawing, origami, and jigsaw puzzles. Yiwei hopes to bring all kinds of creativity into her research on biomimetics with MD simulations.

Singh, Rishabh Kumar

My research interest lies in developing bottom-up coarse-graining approaches for studying peptoid self-assemblies. In my MS thesis, I worked on the conformational dynamics of a single-stranded flavivirus RNA using a coarse-grained Dynamic Counter-ion Condensation model. For leisure, I often like to read philosophy articles, besides that, I'm a passionate badminton player and a chess enthusiast.

Undergraduate Students

Ganesan, Nivedha

Nivedha joined the lab as an undergraduate researcher in 2023.

Han, Jeeyoung

Jeeyoung is an undergrad research assistant at Rutgers University majoring in Chemical & Biochemical engineering and minoring in Biological Sciences. She is especially interested in the biomedical field and she's planning to earn a PhD degree to become a medical researcher. She was selected as a Project Super Summer 2022 research scholar from Douglass Residential College at Rutgers University which led her to work under Dr. Meenakshi Dutt's lab.

Alumni

Birchett, Imani

Imani joined the lab as a member of the Advanced Materials REU in 2023.

Oenga, Ebony

Ebony received her undergraduate degree in the class of 2022 majoring in Human Biology and minoring in Psychology at the University at Albany. She joined the Advanced Materials RISE Program in Summer 2022. Outside of research, Ebony enjoys reading, cooking, listening to music, and running.

Banerjee, Akash

Akash is a Doctoral Candidate in the Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering at Rutgers. Akash received his undergraduate degree from BMS College of Engineering, India. He joined the group in Fall 2016. He goes by the protocol of building blocks. Be it working with Lego, cooking, writing (his top 3 hobbies) and the idea of molecular dynamics; all are based on the methodology of putting one thing after the other to build a meaningful/tasty/articulate output.

Mushnoori, Srinivas

Srinivas is a Doctoral Candidate in the Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering at Rutgers. He joined the Rutgers University Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering in 2013 after first earning his Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) Pilani, KK Birla Goa Campus in 2011 and then working as a Project Fellow at the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), India. He is an avid reader, science fiction and videogame enthusiast and musician.

Zang, Ethan

Ethan is an undergraduate in the Class of 2021 majoring in Chemical Engineering and minoring in Mathematics and Computer Science. He joined the group in Summer 2018, with the goal of earning a graduate degree and working in the biotechnology industry in the future. He enjoys listening to podcasts, longboarding, and playing basketball.

Powers, Isabel

Isabel is an undergraduate in the class of 2023 majoring in Biomedical Engineering and minoring in Philosophy at the University of Arkansas. She joined the group in Summer 2021. Isabel enjoys reading, working at the animal shelter, and traveling.

Welch, Rebecca

Rebecca is an undergraduate for the class of 2021 majoring in Chemical Engineering. She joined the group in spring of 2020. She enjoys hiking, rock climbing, and racquetball.

Shawl, Ahsan

Ahsan is an undergraduate for the class of 2020 studying Chemical Engineering and joined the Computational Hybrid Soft Materials Laboratory in the Fall of 2017. He plans to work in the pharmaceutical industry after graduating. In his free time, Ahsan enjoys running, lifting weights and listening to music.

Tam, Acacia

Acacia is an undergrad in the Class of 2021 majoring in Biomedical Engineering at Cornell University. She joined the group in the Summer of 2019. Acacia enjoys practicing gymnastics, making bubble tea, and exploring new places.

Lu, Yu Chien

Chien Yu received his undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from Chung Yuan Christian University, Taiwan. He is currently pursuing a Master degree in CBE from Rutgers and joined the group in Spring 2018. He enjoys playing baseball and basketball, cooking and marathon.

Schmidt, Kassandra

Kassandra received her undergraduate degree in Biomedical Engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. She is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Biomedical Engineering and joined the group in Fall 2016. When not working on research, Kassandra likes to play video games, solve puzzles, and read.

Srouji, Nour

Nour is a master’s student in the Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering at Rutgers. She joined the lab in Spring of 2019. Nour received her undergraduate degree also from Rutgers in Chemical Engineering in 2017. Outside of academia she enjoys reading, rock climbing, and playing video games.

Yu, Xiang

Xiang is a Doctoral Candidate in the Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering at Rutgers. He joined the Computational Hybrid Soft materials Laboratory in 2014 after completing undergraduate studies at the Pennsylvania State University. His interests include cooking Chinese food and reading fiction, particularly detective novels.

Finkel, Zachary

Zachary Finkel is a fourth year biochemistry and biological sciences dual major at Rowan University. He aspires to become a medical researcher with goals to obtain his MD/PhD in the coming years. His hobbies include practicing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Muay Thai, and Judo.

Tianyou Mou

Tianyou is an undergraduate for the class of 2017 studying Chemical Engineering. He joined the Computational Hybrid Soft Materials Laboratory in 2016. He wants to obtain his PhD after graduate. He is interested in experimental research.

Brian Ronan

Brian is an undergraduate for the class of 2018 studying Chemical Engineering and joined the Computational Hybrid Soft Materials Laboratory in the Spring of 2017. Outside of his studies, he enjoys playing music, drawing, and reading.

Sarah Libring

Sarah earned her bachelor degree of Biomedical Engineering in 2017. She joined the Computational Hybrid Soft Materials Laboratory in Spring 2014. After graduating, she aspires to obtain her PhD in Biomedical Engineering. In her free time, Sarah enjoys reading, bike riding, and going to the beach.

Kai Jin

Kai earned his bachelor degree of Chemical Engineering in 2017. He spent his first two years of college in Beijing University of Chemical Technology and then transferred to Rutgers to complete his bachelor's degree. In his free time, he enjoys watching movies and playing video games(LOL,GTA5)

Xiaolei Chu

Xiaolei completed his Master’s degree in the Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering at Rutgers in 2016. He joined the Computational Hybrid Soft materials Laboratory in 2013 after completing undergraduate studies at Shanghai Institute of Technology in China. He is currently a PhD student at the University of California at Davis.

Fikret Aydin

Fikret earned his undergraduate degree from Koc University, Istanbul, Turkey in 2011, following which he joined the Computational Hybrid Soft Materials Laboratory at Rutgers. He earned his PhD degree in 2015 and he is currently a post-doc at University of Chicago. His interests include science fiction and fantasy books, team sports such as soccer and basketball, strategy board games, watching films and visiting museums.

Geetartha Uppaladadium

Geetartha joined the Rutgers Chemical and Biochemical Department after earning his undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from the Chaitanya Bharati Institute of Technology, India, in 2013. He takes an interest in cooking and dog training.

Leebyn Chong

Leebyn joined the Computational Hybrid Soft Materials Laboratory in 2011 after earning his undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from Columbia University. He graduated with PhD in 2015 and he is currently a Researcher in the National Energy Technology Laboratory, Pittsburgh. In his spare time, Leebyn enjoys building computers, science fiction films and videogames.

Joseph Greenstein

Joseph earned an Associate’s degree in engineering from the Ocean County College, New Jersey, USA in 2014.

Gabriel J. Rodriguez

Gabriel joined the group as a visiting student during summer 2015, as a part of the NSF funded RiSE programe. He is a undergraduate student at University of Puerto Rico.

Michael Sebastiano

Michael joined the group at 2013 as an undergraduate Slade Scholar. He is currently working in industry.

Ye Joon Seo

Ye Joon is an undergraduate for the class of 2017 in Chemical Engineering. He studies at the Grove School of Engineering in the City College of New York as part of the Macaulay Honors program. Ye Joon joined the group as a visiting student during the summer of 2016 as a part of the NSF-funded RiSE program. He enjoys dancing, playing videos games, and watching movies.

Jia Li

Jia earned her Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Sichuan University, China, in 2010 and then went on to earn her Master’s degree, also in Chemistry, from the Florida Institute of Technology in 2012. In 2015, she joined Rutgers for a second Master’s degree, this time in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering. She enjoys travelling, watching movies and playing tennis.

Bin Zhang

Bin earned his undergraduate degree in Safety Engineering from the Nanjing University of Science and Technology, China, in 2014. He has now joined the Rutgers University Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering as a Master’s Degree student. In his spare time, Bin enjoys videogames and movies.

Vyshnavi Karra

Vyshnavi is a Graduate Student in the Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering. She joined the Computational Hybrid Soft Materials Laboratory in 2013.

Emran Reshid

Emran is an undergraduate for the class of 2019 in Electrical Engineering with minor in Computer Science. He studies at NJIT's Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. Emran joined the group as a visiting student during the summer of 2017 as a part of the NSF-funded RISE program. He enjoys basketball, rainy days, Last Week Tonight, and visualizing..

Orlando A. Mulero Flores

Orlando joined the group at 2014 as an a part of summer programe of RiSE at Rutgers. He is an undergraduate student at University of Puerto Rico (Mayaguez Campus).

Yuan Zhuang

Yuan joined the group at 2013 as an undergraduate of Rutgers.

Andrew Rullo

Andrew joined the group at 2013 as an undergraduate of Rutgers.

Bharatram Muralidharan

Bharatram joined the group at 2011 as an master student. He is currently working in C & J Oil Company.

Diane Kao

Diane jointed the group at 2012, she is currently working in industry.

Sang Yun Lee

Sang Yun joined the group at 2012 as an undergraduate Slade Scholar. He is currently working in industry.

Evan Koufos

Evan joined the group at 2012 as an undergraduate Slade Scholar. He is currently pursuing Doctoral studies in Lehigh University.

Paul Ludford

Paul joined the group at 2012 as an undergraduate Slade Scholar. He is currently working in industry.