{"id":87185,"date":"2025-12-15T11:40:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T16:40:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/?p=87185"},"modified":"2026-01-27T09:24:57","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T14:24:57","slug":"chemical-engineering-ph-d-candidate-to-complete-co-op-defend-dissertation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/chemical-engineering-ph-d-candidate-to-complete-co-op-defend-dissertation\/","title":{"rendered":"Chemical engineering Ph.D. candidate to complete co-op, defend dissertation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dec. 15, 2025 – Mechanical engineering, chemistry and physics may seem like three separate areas of study, but they overlap in more ways than one. Elnaz Nikoumanesh, a fifth-year Ph.D. chemical engineering<\/a> candidate, knows that well. She studied mechanical engineering during her undergraduate and master\u2019s studies, but became very interested in experimental work with biological and soft materials. This led her to the chemical engineering Ph.D. program at the University of Rhode Island, specifically to research soft materials and rheology, a type of physics that studies how matter deforms and flows.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Presenting at the American Physical Society meeting, March 2024<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Nikoumanesh, of Iran, joined assistant professor Ryan Poling-Skutvik\u2019s<\/a> research lab for soft matter research<\/a> in 2021. \u201cIt was one of the best decisions I\u2019ve ever made, as I have learned and grown both personally and professionally in this group,\u201d said Nikoumanesh.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Nikoumanesh, right, with assistant professor Poling-Skutvik after giving a presentation at a seminar, 2025<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Her research focuses on understanding and applying the rheology of soft materials, particularly colloidal gels. She developed a novel rheological protocol, called serial creep divergence, to characterize the time-dependent evolution of structure and properties in thixotropic yield stress fluids. This approach enables the first clear quantification of yield stress in these specific complex materials for prototypes that require flexibility, elasticity, and shock absorption and eliminate expensive or time consuming custom molds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By adjusting how quickly a material rebuilds its internal structure after being pushed or mixed, they could create gels that flow easily through a printer nozzle but then solidify almost immediately once deposited. If a material is too runny or too stiff, it simply won\u2019t print well. But by precisely controlling its properties temporarily the material can produce stable, well-defined shapes from soft, gel-like materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of my favorite memories in the lab was when our custom-built 3D printer produced its first successful print,\u201d said Nikoumanesh. \u201cIt took months of hard work and teamwork, and seeing it finally come together was incredible. In our group, I worked with our undergraduate students to set up the printer and develop printing protocols that bridge our fundamental discoveries about thixotropy with practical 3D printing of soft materials.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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The framed cover of Soft Matter that featured her paper, gifted to her by her advisor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

During her time at URI, she has had three papers published in multiple leading journals. Soft Matter<\/em> even featured her paper, \u201cElucidating the Role of Physicochemical Interactions on Gel Rheology\u201d on the journal\u2019s cover. \u201cPublishing my first paper was another unforgettable moment,\u201d said Nikoumanesh. \u201cI also really enjoyed mentoring undergraduate students and watching them grow as researchers. Overall, as one of the first Ph.D. students working with Dr. Poling-Skutvik, it has been exciting to see the lab grow and to be part of that journey.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nikoumanesh received several awards over the last five years and traveled to many locations for conferences and presentations including the Women in Chemical Engineering Travel Award to present her research at the 2025 AIChE Annual conference and selection as one of MIT\u2019s Rising Stars in Mechanical Engineering. She also received multiple student travel awards and in 2024, she won first place at the annual URI Chemical Engineering Research Symposium and was invited to speak at the Society of Rheology Future of Rheology Seminar Series.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Nikoumanesh will complete a co-op in formulation at Vertex Pharmaceuticals in Boston, December 2025. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Beyond academia, she gained valuable industry experience as a graduate research and development intern at 3M Company in Minnesota in the summer of 2024 and will complete a co-op in formulation at Vertex Pharmaceuticals in Boston this month. The program offers students an opportunity to learn about the pharmaceutical industry through mentorship and research experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the co-op, she plans to return to URI to finish and present her Ph.D. dissertation and publish additional research papers. Even after almost five years in Rhode Island, Newport is still one of her favorite places in the state. \u201cOverall, I love Rhode Island\u2019s beaches, the beautiful islands, and all the spots you can explore. Brickley\u2019s Ice Cream in Wakefield is another favorite, it became a sweet summer tradition to hang out there with friends,\u201d said Nikoumanesh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once obtaining her Ph.D., she hopes to apply her knowledge and experience in industry to design innovative products and make a real-world impact.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dec. 15, 2025 – Mechanical engineering, chemistry and physics may seem like three separate areas of study, but they overlap in more ways than one. Elnaz Nikoumanesh, a fifth-year Ph.D. chemical engineering candidate, knows that well. She studied mechanical engineering during her undergraduate and master\u2019s studies, but became very interested in experimental work with biological […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5094,"featured_media":87188,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[172,27,472,17,18,382,779,96,77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-materials","category-cheme","category-chemical-highlights","category-front-page-news","category-news","category-research","category-research-news","category-student-success","category-students"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5094"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87185"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87302,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87185\/revisions\/87302"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}