Biography

Indian Institute of Technology - Madras, India B. Tech in Biotechnology, 2006.
University of Maryland, College Park PhD in Chemical Physics, 2011.
Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California, Berkeley, 2011-2014.
Assistant Professor, University of Chicago, 2014-

Honors and accolades

Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award  2020

NSF CAREER Award  2018

Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship  2017

VSRP Fellowship. Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, India  2005

Best Poster Prize, Mini Statistical Mechanics Meeting  2012

Ann G Wylie Dissertation Fellowship, University of Maryland, College Park  2011

Research Interests

We develop and use tools of equilibrium and non-equilibrium statistical mechanics to understand the behavior of complex systems in physical chemistry, soft condensed matter physics, and biophysics. Specific research directions include:

Statistical mechanics of driven systems and self assembly out of equilibrium:

Understanding the statistical mechanics of self assembly and pattern formation under non-equilibrium conditions remains an important open problem. We are interested in developing theoretical and simulation methodologies that enable the study of far from equilibrium systems and elucidate the principles of assembly, stability and self organization in non-equilibrium conditions.

Information processing and control in biology:

Energy dissipation is a characteristic feature of feedback and information processing circuits in biological systems. Research in our group will explore tradeoffs between efficiency and dissipation in biological circuits and motors, and the strategies utilized by biological systems to ensure sensitivity and robustness in noisy dissipative environments.

Fluctuations in water:

A microscopic understanding of both density and electric field fluctuations in water is important for a wide variety of problems in biophysics and physical chemistry including biophysical modeling of proteins and other biomolecules, understanding the electrochemistry of water, and solvation dynamics in heterogenous environments. We are interested in developing theories which appropriately couple density and electric field fluctuations. We are also interested in using such theories to develop minimal coarse-grained models of water.

Selected Publications

S. Vaikuntanathan, P. L. Geissler “Putting water on a lattice : The importance of long wavelength density fluctuations in theories of hydrophobic and interfacial phenomena", PRL, 112(2), 020603, 2014.

S. Vaikuntanathan, G. M. Rokstoff, A. Hudson, P. L. Geissler "Necessity of capillary modes in a minimal model of nanoscale hydrophobic solvation", Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 10.1073/pnas.1513659113 2016.

*S. Katira, *K. K. Mandadapu, *S. Vaikuntanathan, B. Smit, D. Chandler, "Pre-transition effects mediate forces of assembly between transmembrane proteins", eLife 10.7554/eLife.13150 2016.

M. Nguyen, S. Vaikuntanathan "Design principles for nonequilibrium self assembly", Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 113, 10.1073/pnas.1609983113, 14231, 2016.

A. Murugan, S. Vaikuntanathan, "Topologically protected modes in non-equilibrium stochastic systems", Nature Comm. 10.1038/ncomms13381, 2017.

H. Zhang, K. Dasbiswas, N. B. Ludwig, G. Han, B. Lee, S. Vaikuntanathan, D. V. Talapin, "Stable colloids in molten inorganic salts", Nature, 542, 328-331, 2017.

C. del Junco, L. Tociu, S. Vaikuntanathan, "Energy dissipation and fluctuations in a driven liquid", Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 10.1073.pnas.1713573115, 2018.

L. Tociu, E. Fodor, T. Nemoto, S Vaikuntanathan, “How dissipation constrains fluctuations in nonequilibrium liquids: Diffusion, Structure, and Biased Interations", PRX, 9, 041026, 2019.