- RPS Named 2025 Cottrell Scholar
Dr. Ryan Poling-Skutvik was named as a 2025 Cottrell Scholar by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement. Through a competitive peer-review process, this award recognizes early career teacher-scholars in the fields of chemistry, physics, and astronomy.
RPS received this award for his proposal titled “Developing a Dynamic Taxonomy of Soft Matter for a New Era of Material Design.” This work looks to develop and understand soft materials through a dynamic paradigm. This award includes a grant of $120,000 to conduct this proposed research.
Award highlight in Rhody Today
- Congratulations Dr. Daniel Keane!
RPS and Dr. Daniel Keane after his successful PhD defense, December 2024. Daniel Keane has successfully defended his PhD thesis and becomes the first PhD graduate of the RPS Lab!
His thesis work forms the foundation of our thrusts in designing novel rheological modifiers, fully synthetic biomimetic analogues, and high-performance inks for 3D printing. He will join Ingredion in January as a research scientist optimizing the performance of rheological additives for food applications.
- AIChE Poster Awards
In October, the RPS Lab attended the Annual AIChE Conference in San Diego, CA. At this conference, two undergraduate researchers – David Amirsadri and Colby Constantine – presented posters on their research projects, and both students received poster awards for their presentations. Congratulations!
David Amirsadri
Poster: Dynamics of Polymer-Grafted Nanoparticle Suspensions
Award: 2nd Place Undergraduate Poster in Materials Engineering and Sciences Session.
This project combines his research in our group with the research he performed at an REU over the summer with Dr. Kiril Streletzky at Cleveland State University and Dr. Michael Hore at Case Western Reserve University. His investigation characterizes the thickness of grafted polymer layers on anisotropic nanorods and their aggregation in thermally responsive solvents.
Colby Constantine
Poster: Characterizing Nanoparticle Dynamics in Biorelevant Materials to Predict Epithelial Transport Properties of Orally Administered Medications
Award: 2nd Place Undergraduate Poster in Food, Pharmaceutical, and Biotechnology Session.
This two-part investigation develops synthetic materials that mimic the hierarchical structure of mucosal layers in the body and identifies nanoparticle dynamics in these biomimetic systems.
- Welcome New Students!
The RPS Lab for Soft Matter Research is excited to welcome three new students into our group:
Graduate Students:
Sabirul Khan Priyo
Sabirul joins us from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology where he completed his Bachelors in Chemical Engineering. He will be working to develop new polymer chemistries to promote bridge formation in colloidal suspensions.
Sepehr Yari
Sepehr joins us from Sharif University of Technology where he completed his Bachelors in Materials Science and Engineering. He will be working on a joint project with Dr. Daniel Roxbury (URI CHE) to investigate the intracellular dynamics of carbon nanotubes as a physical sensor of cellular health.
Undergraduate students:
Gabriel Stradtman
Gabriel is a Junior working towards his Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering. He joins our team working with Elnaz Nikoumanesh to develop printability metrics for thixotropic yield stress fluids.
- Award Winning Posters!
RPS Lab at the URI CHE Department Symposium 
Mohammadjavad Hajirezaei (2nd from left) and Elnaz Nikoumanesh (middle) Last week, the RPS lab presented their work at the annual URI Department of Chemical Engineering Research Symposium. With some fantastic posters all around, a number of our lab members received poster awards:
Undergraduates:
Charles Jouaneh, 2nd Place, Characterization of cellulose nanofiber-based gels for applications as an extrusion-based bioprinting ink
Colby Constantine, 3rd Place, Characterizing Nanoparticle Dynamics in Biorelevant Materials to Predict Epithelial Transport Properties of Orally Administered Medications
Graduate Students:
Elnaz Nikoumanesh, 1st Place, Unveiling the Role of Physicochemical Bonds on Yield Stress and Thixotropy
Mohammadjavad Hajirezaei, 3rd Place, Investigating the Long-Term Performance of Polymeric Liner
Congratulations to all of our students for their hard work and accomplishments this semester!
