In recent years, self-assembled systems have garnered much attention due to their potential for creating order on very small scales as well as their obvious analogy to biological systems. When considering these systems, one must be aware of the ever present issue of boundary effects which can strongly influence the behavior and structure of the self-assembly. In many cases, the boundary effects are caused by a confined system in which the assembly is taking place. For instance, colloidal assembly in microfluidic devices has been shown to be a promising route for manufacturing micron, or sub-micron, structured systems. Furthermore, the study of confined self-assembly has revealed much information about factors which influence structure and dynamics of the system. We have focused upon the self-assembly of magnetorheological (MR) fluids in confinement. Self-assembled MR fluids have been used as structural components in microfluidic systems offering a fast, inexpensive alternative to traditional photolithographic techniques. The characteristic length-scales in microfluidic devices have continued to shrink down to the colloidal size, making studies of self-assembly under extreme confinement a timely undertaking. It has become essential to study these systems in order to enable the design of meaningful applications using such technology.

My doctoral thesis focused upon the self-assembly of MR fluids in confined geometries. In order to study this problem, I developed a versatile Brownian dynamics (BD) code capable of simulating MR colloids of any shape interacting in any general geometry. I used the BD code to study the self assembly of spherical colloids confined in two-dimensional (2D) channels and discovered a number of interesting phenomena. In addition to the simulation work, I performed an extensive set of experiments on the self-assembly of MR colloids in 2D microfluidic channels and showed the first experimental observation of re-entrant melting as a function of confining geometry. Aside from the 2D studies, I investigated the factors controlling self-assembly in the thin-slit geometry. I elucidated the important physical phenomena affecting the self-assembly of dilute MR fluids in this common microfluidic geometry. I showed how the system transitions from 2D to 3D behavior as the confinement is relaxed from a monolayer to a channel of finite thickness.

During the course of my Ph.D. I also completed a Masters of Chemical Engineering Practice in which I gained invaluable industrial experience. Since graduating, I took a position as a Lecturer of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Tufts University and spent the 2006-2007 academic year teaching graduate level Transport Phenomena, graduate level Thermodynamics, two undergraduate laboratory courses, and a graduate level course in microfluidic technology. This experience has enabled me to sharpen my teaching skills and given me a great head-start in my development as an academic researcher and teacher. In February of 2007, I was awarded the MIT/MGH postdoctoral fellowship in translational research (2 awards out of more than 50 applicants) and I am currently a postdoctoral fellow in the BioMEMS Resource Center at Massachusetts General Hospital

In my postdoctoral work, I have developed a technique for fabricating non-spherical polymeric microparticles with tunable deformability. I have studied the properties of these particles under confinement and demonstrated that they exhibit bio-mimetic properties similar to red blood cells. I have also explored novel biomedical applications for these particles.