Rema Krishnaswamy
Areas of Interest & Expertise
- Experimental Soft Matter Physics
- Rheology and Optical Imaging
- Microfluidics
- Small Angle X‑ray Scattering
- Developing a Low Cost Lab-Centered Science Curriculum
Biography
Before joining the University, Rema Krishnaswamy worked at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bangalore and at the Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore as a DST Ramanujan Fellow (2010−2015).
She obtained her PhD (2004) in physics from Raman Research Institute (RRI), Bangalore in the area of experimental soft condensed matter physics.
She was also a postdoctoral fellow at the Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, Universite Paris-Sud, Orsay (2004−2005) and subsequently a centenary postdoctoral fellow at Department of Physics, IISc (2006−2009).
Her research interests are interdisciplinary and deal with understanding the structure, phase behaviour, and non-equilibrium phenomena under flow of different “Soft Matter” systems such as colloids, surfactants, emulsions, liquid crystals and bio-inspired materials.
Her current research interest is in the area of active matter that exhibit rich physics such as internally generated flows, self-motility, and large-scale collective motion, mimicking the behaviour observed in biological systems.
Active emulsions formed by micron-sized liquid crystal or oil drops that self-propel in an aqueous medium is a model system that is of interest to her.
Using optical techniques like microscopy and light scattering in the lab, she studies their dynamics, shape deformation, and collective behavior in the bulk and at fluid interfaces.
Courses
Experimental Methods
Appreciate and learn the physical principles, techniques, and creativity that go in conducting experiments in physics.
Mathematics for Physics I
Where Mathematics intersects with the Physical World
Atoms and Molecules
This is an introductory course in chemistry for students of physics.
Optics
Understand the nature of light and how it can be manipulated for a variety of applications ubiquitous in daily life.
Soft Matter
This course emphasizes the quantitative approach of physics and mathematics applied to everyday materials.
Publications:
Journal Articles
Bera, P.K., Rathee, V., Krishnaswamy, R., & Sood, A.K. (2021). Shear induced ordering of nanopores and instabilities in surfactant mesh phases. Langmuir, 37(23), 6874 – 6886. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.langmuir.0c03660
Bera, P.K., Kandar, A.K., Krishnaswamy, R., Fontaine, P., Impéror-Clerc, M., Pansu, B., Constantin, D., Maiti, S., Sanyal, M.K., & Sood, A.K. (2020). Grazing incidence x‑ray diffraction studies of lipid – peptide mixed monolayers during shear flow. ACS Omega, 5(24), 14555 – 14563. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsomega.0c01261
Bera, P.K., Kandar, A.K., Krishnaswamy, R., & Sood, A.K. (2019). Experimental signatures of a non-equilibrium phase transition near the crossover point of a Langmuir monolayer. Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, 31(50). https://doi.org/10.1088/1361 – 648X/ab4235