Hamed Almohammadi

Current: Center for Soft and Living Matter (CSLM) Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Pennsylvania, USA
Previous: Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University, USA
Ph.D. Soft Matter Physics, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
M.Sc. Mechanical Engineering, York University, Canada
B.S. Mechanical Engineering, University of Tabriz, Iran

Current Research

Liquid–liquid phase separation (LLPS) is a fundamental phenomenon across soft matter physics, engineering, materials science, and biology. In isotropic fluids, LLPS typically proceeds through the formation of spherical droplets. However, in structured fluids—common in biological and industrial systems containing semiflexible or rigid components—phase separation gives rise to complex, non-spherical morphologies, such as filaments and bulged discs, via a distinct mechanism known as liquid–liquid crystalline phase separation (LLCPS). This process emerges from an intricate coupling between thermodynamic and transport phenomena that remains poorly understood.

In a joint project between the Osuji and Mathijssen groups, I combine expertise in soft-matter physics, biophysics, and engineering to elucidate the physical principles governing LLCPS. Using synthetic smectic liquid crystals as a model platform that exhibits life-like, dynamic, and morphologically rich behaviors, I aim to systematically disentangle how underlying physical principles—such as elasticity, interfacial tension, and hydrodynamic forces—drive phase separation. Beyond fundamental understanding, I aim to leverage this knowledge to develop new approaches for designing life-like dynamics in functional materials.

Bio

Hamed is a Center for Soft and Living Matter (CSLM) Postdoctoral Fellow in the Osuji and Mathijssen groups at the University of Pennsylvania, where he explores the physical principles governing liquid–liquid phase separation, relevant to many material synthesis and biological processes. Previously, Hamed was a Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) Postdoctoral Fellow in Joanna Aizenberg’s group at Harvard University, where he developed methods to fabricate stimuli-responsive microstructures and colloidal particles, a few micrometers in size, for bioinspired functional materials and fluids.

Before moving to the United States, he completed his Ph.D. at ETH Zurich under Raffaele Mezzenga, focusing on liquid–liquid (crystalline) phase separation and self-assembly in biological colloids, such as amyloid fibrils. He holds an M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from York University, Canada, where he investigated the fluid mechanics and thermodynamics of droplet–surface interactions on bioinspired surfaces, and a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Tabriz, Iran, where he studied heat transfer in colloidal systems.