ChemMatCARS

Dr. Luka Pocivavsek has been recognized by the American Physical Society for his PhD thesis, "Mechanical and Thermodynamic Focusing at Membrane Interfaces," which is based in part on data collected on the liquid surface instrument at ChemMatCARS.

The Division of Biological Physics of the American Physical Society awarded Pocivavsek an honorable mention in the competition for its first Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Research in Biological Physics Award.

The society cited Pocivavsek's outstanding work on the collapse mechanisms of thin films, especially lung surfactants.

According to the society, "Dr. Pocivavsek has made pioneering theoretical and experimental contributions to understanding reversible folding collapse in lung surfactant monolayers and the factors that determine collapse behavior. Dr. Pocivavsek's breakthrough work provides important biophysical, mechanistic insights into how lung surfactants’ mechanical characteristics maintain stability in the lungs."

Pocivavsek received his PhD in December 2008 from the University of Chicago Department of Chemistry and is presently continuing his studies toward an MD at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine.

Selected Publications
Luka Pocivavsek, Brian Leahy, Niels Holten-Andersen, Binhua Lin, Ka Yee C. Lee, and Enrique Cerda, "Geometric Tools for Complex Interfaces: from Lung Surfactant to the Mussel Byssus," Soft Matter, 5 (2009), 1963-1968, DOI: 10.1039/b817513f. [PDF]

Luka Pocivavsek, Robert Dellsy, Andrew Kern, Sebastián Johnson, Binhua Lin, Ka Yee C. Lee, and Enrique Cerda, "Stress and Fold Localization in Thin Elastic Membranes," Science, 320 (2008) 912-916. [PDF]