Khair elected to APS Fellows

Aditya Khair, professor of chemical engineering, has been elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society.

Fellowship is a distinct honor signifying recognition by professional peers. APS Fellows have made exceptional contributions to the physics enterprise.

The citation for Khair reads: "For describing the dynamics of complex fluids, including colloidal dispersions and active matter, using asymptotic analyses and numerical computations, with applications to electrokinetic phenomena such as particle transport and diffuse charge dynamics, suspension rheology, and active suspensions."

Khair develops and analyzes mathematical models to predict or explain non-intuitive transport or flow phenomena. Recent research from Khair's group has deepened the understanding of electrophoresis and discovered a new way to tame the chaotic movement of active droplets.

Khair is known for close collaboration with experimentalists. For example, he has been working with Chris Bettinger, professor of biomedical engineering and materials science and engineering, to develop digestible gelatin-based sensors that would offer an alternative to endoscopies for patients with gastrointestinal diseases. Khair applied mathematical models, particularly in regard to impedance sensing, to interpret experimental data from the Bettinger group.

"Being elected as a Fellow in the American Physical Society is a very significant recognition of Aditya's contributions to his branch of physics. No more than one half of one percent of the membership of APS may be named Fellows in any year. His naming as a Fellow also recognizes that his research–both in content and style–reaches across disciplines," says Steve Garoff, emeritus professor of physics, who was elected an APS Fellow in 1998. "Being lucky enough to have collaborated with Aditya for some years now and knowing the very high caliber of work needed to be named a Fellow, I can say Aditya's receiving this honor is very well deserved."

Khair's work has been recognized previously with the AES Electrophoresis Society Mid-Career Award, the Metzner Early Career Award from the Society of Rheology, the Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, the NSF CAREER Award, the Charles Kaufmann Foundation New Investigator Research Grant, and the Frenkiel Award of the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics. Within Carnegie Mellon's Department of Chemical Engineering, Khair serves as director of graduate education.

For media inquiries, please contact Lauren Smith at lsmith2@andrew.cmu.edu.