Biophysics & Nonlinear Dynamics

Exploring complex dynamics, instabilities, chaos, and pattern formation in systems driven far from thermodynamic equilibrium.

Studies in this area include: solid, fluid, chemical, granular, low-temperature gas, chemical, and biological systems involve laboratory experiments, numerical simulations, and theoretical analyses. Problems currently being examined include instabilities at fluid interfaces, dynamics of fluidized beds, spatial patterns and shock waves in granular flows, pattern formation in chemical reaction-diffusion systems, internal waves, crack propagation in crystalline and amorphous materials, student flows, quantum chaos with ultra-cold atoms, nonlinear dynamics of bose condensates, general methods of laser cooling, biopolymer mechanics, Brownian motion, cell mechanics, molecular motors, intracellular transport, super-resolution microscopy, biofilm formation, bacterial competition, and biological membranes.

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Ernst-Ludwig Florin

  • Associate Professor
  • Physics
  • Interdisciplinary Life Sciences Graduate Programs
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Michael Marder

  • Professor
  • Director, UTeach
  • Physics
  • UTeach
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William Gilpin

  • Assistant Professor
  • Physics
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Vernita Gordon

  • Professor
  • Physics
  • Interdisciplinary Life Sciences Graduate Programs

Elizabeth B. Gleeson Professorship in Plan II (Fellow)
Trull Centennial Professorship in Physics #1 (Fellow)

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José Alvarado

  • Assistant Professor
  • Physics
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Philip Morrison

  • Professor
  • Texas Atomic Energy Research Foundation Professorship
  • Physics
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Mark Raizen

  • Professor
  • Sid W. Richardson Foundation Regents Chair in Physics #2
  • Physics