Faculty

Research/Areas of Interest: computational geometry, design and analysis of algorithms, computational complexity

Research/Areas of Interest: 1) Infrastructure management during uncertain contexts 2) Understanding public perceptions towards the built environment 3) Sustainable water technology adoption

Research/Areas of Interest: Brain Injury, Neurological Disorders, Substance-Use Community Programming, Occupational Therapy in Post-Secondary Education, Evaluation and Treatment of Physical & Cognitive Dysfunction, Rehabilitation in Inpatient Settings, Rehabilitation Management, Fieldwork

Research/Areas of Interest: Political Economy, International Economics, Economic Growth and Development

Research/Areas of Interest: Transportation; Health; Spatial models; Geographic Information Systems

Research/Areas of Interest: Biological Physics, Condensed Matter Physics, Quantum Mechanics My research interests cover a broad array of topics in biological physics, condensed matter physics and quantum mechanics. In biological physics our group is performing both experimental and theoretical work to uncover fundamental physical principles that underlie the formation of functional neuronal networks among neurons in the brain. One of the primary challenges in science today is to figure out how as many as 100 billion neurons are produced, grow, and organize themselves into the truly wonderful information-processing machine which is the brain. We combine high-resolution imaging techniques such as atomic force, traction force and fluorescence microscopy to measure mechanical properties of neurons and to correlate these properties with internal components of the cell. Our group is also using mathematical modeling based on stochastic differential equations and the theory of dynamical systems to predict axonal growth and the formation of neuronal networks. The aim of this work is twofold. On the one hand we are using tools and concepts from experimental and theoretical physics to understand biological processes. On the other hand, active biological processes in neuronal cells exhibit a wealth of fascinating phenomena such as feedback control, pattern formation, collective behavior, and non equilibrium dynamics, and thus the insights learned from studying these biological systems broaden the intellectual range of physics. I am also interested in the foundations of quantum mechanics, particularly in decoherence phenomena and in applying the theory of stochastic processes to open quantum systems. My interests in condensed matter physics include quantum transport in nanoscale systems (carbon nanotubes, graphene, polymer composites, hybrid nanostructures), as well as scanning probe microscopy investigations of novel biomaterials.

Research/Areas of Interest: Food systems, farm history/heritage, myth and ritual, tourism, industrial heritage, culture-led redevelopment

Research/Areas of Interest: Animal Behavior: Recognition systems, evolution of sociality, parasite and host relationships, behavioral & chemical communication, invasion genetics

Research/Areas of Interest: German language and culture teaching as a vehicle to intercultural citizenship, second language acquisition, and teacher language education.

Research/Areas of Interest: Dr. Thomas Stopka, PhD, MHS, is an Epidemiologist and Professor with the Department of Public Health and Community Medicine at the Tufts University School of Medicine. Dr. Stopka's current mixed methods research focuses on the intersection of substance use disorder, opioid overdose, and infectious diseases (HCV, HIV, STIs). He employs geographic information systems (GIS), spatial epidemiological, qualitative, and biostatistical approaches in multi-site, interdisciplinary studies, and public health interventions to better understand and curb opioid-related morbidity and mortality. He is currently MPI on four clinical trials and observational studies funded by the NIH, CDC, and SAMHSA to test new mobile telemedicine-based HCV treatment and harm reduction models; employ Bayesian spatiotemporal models to predict opioid overdose spikes to inform pre-emptive public health responses; and evaluate the overdose prevention impacts of administration of extended-relief buprenorphine in corrections facilities, and examine xylazine exposure and the risk of skin and soft tissue infections among people who inject drugs. Dr. Stopka is also Co-Chair of the Tufts Research Cluster focused on Equity in Health, Wealth, and Civic Engagement, and Co-Chair of the Public Health and Community Medicine Departmental Research Committee at Tufts. He teaches courses in GIS and spatial epidemiology, research methods for public health, and epidemiology. He enjoys mentoring research assistants, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty.

Research/Areas of Interest: Development and Growth, Urban Economics

Research/Areas of Interest: Creative Nonfiction, Journalism, Nuclear Weapons History, Climate Change, Anthropocene, Environment, Mental Illness, Secrecy

Research/Areas of Interest: Medieval Latin Philosophy; Classical Arabic Philosophy; History and Philosophy of Logic; Aristotle; Avicenna

Research/Areas of Interest: Environmental health, environmental epidemiology, air pollution, exposure science, data analytics

Research/Areas of Interest: Medieval art, architecture, and visual culture in Europe and the Byzantine-Slavic cultural spheres; image theory; historiography; patronage; monasticism; cross-cultural interactions

Research/Areas of Interest: Music and identity, music and spiritual experience, music and advocacy, and the impact of technology on the transmission of tradition.

Research/Areas of Interest: Parallel Algorithms, Computational Sciences, High Performance Computing

Research/Areas of Interest: Science focused on energy, development and environmental management. Computational modeling of electrical grid integration of renewable energy and storage. Interaction of science and policy in academia, industry and government

Research/Areas of Interest: Moral philosophy, practical rationality, moral psychology, action theory

Research/Areas of Interest: Research focuses on sustainable development and innovative engineering education, at times combining the two. Specific research projects include: 1) service-based education and how it can be best assessed and utilized in engineering and 2) waste minimization and reuse of traditional waste materials.

Research/Areas of Interest: Physical Chemistry, Surface Science, and Nanoscience. The Sykes group utilizes state of the art scanning probes and surface science instrumentation to study technologically important systems. For example, scanning tunneling microscopy enables visualization of geometric and electronic properties of catalytically relevant metal alloy surfaces at the nanoscale. Using temperature programmed reaction studies of well defined model catalyst surfaces structure-property-activity relationships are drawn. Of particular interest is the addition of individual atoms of a reactive metal to a relatively inert host. In this way reactivity can be tuned, and provided the energetic landscapes are understood, novel bifunctional catalytic systems can be designed with unique properties that include low temperature activation and highly selective chemistry. Newly developed curved single crystal surface are also being used to open up previously inaccessible areas of structure sensitive surface chemistry and chiral surface geometries. In a different thrust, the group has developed various molecular motor systems that are enabling us to study many important fundamental aspects of molecular rotation and translation with unprecedented resolution.

Research/Areas of Interest: French Language; Learning Strategies in Second Language Acquisition; Integration of Technology into Second Language Acquisition; Hybrid Courses (face-to-face and online learning)

Research/Areas of Interest: Modern Literature (American, British), Modern Intellectual History (American, British), Aesthetics, Literary Theory

Research/Areas of Interest: Matrix completion, compressive sensing, distance geometry

Research/Areas of Interest: Spatial Cognition, Language, Memory

Research/Areas of Interest: To each point on a curve, one can often associate in a natural way a line or plane (or higher dimensional linear variety) that moves with the point in the curve. This set of linear spaces is called a vector bundle. Vector bundles appear in a variety of questions in Physics (like the computation of Gromov-Witten invariants) . Moreover, they provide new insights into old mathematical problems and have been used to give beautiful proofs to long standing conjectures as well as striking counterexamples to some others.

Research/Areas of Interest: Memory and Aging

Research/Areas of Interest: American Literatures in English; African, African-American & African Diaspora Studies; Colonial & Post-Colonial Discourse/ Race & Empire/ Black Radical Traditions; Cultural Studies; Body Politics / Gender & Sexuality Studies; Philosophy and Critical Theory

Research/Areas of Interest: Organic Materials Chemistry Our group applies the philosophy of physical organic chemistry to organic materials, in the forms of polymers, crystals and surfaces. Specifically, we investigate new materials that show macroscopic changes in properties upon exposure to external stimuli. Our main focus has been new materials that respond to light, which has a unique combination of characteristics: i) easy control over where light goes and when it goes there (spatiotemporal control), ii) easy control over intensity and energy, and iii) the ability to pass through many solid materials that traditional chemical reagents cannot. Our research has focused in three separate areas. 1. Photochemical control of charge. As interactions between charges dictate much of molecular behavior, controlling charge can yield control over matter. We have developed a series of materials in which light switches the charge-based interactions between polymer chains from attractive. By combining this top-down fabrication approach of with the bottom-up fabrication method of layer-by-layer assembly, we have developed thin films in which photochemical lability is confined to individual nanoscale compartments, yielding photo-delaminated free-standing films and multi-height photolithography. 2. Using functional side chains to control conjugated materials. Conjugated materials hold great promise for applications including solar cells and displays. We have focused on expanding the role of the side-chains of these materials, which occupy up to half of their mass but are typically reserved only for solubility. Early work in our group focused on integrating photolabile side chains for negative conjugated photoresists. This has evolved to using the non-covalent interactions of aromatic side-chains for controlling interactions between molecules, and therefore their material properties, including the use of mechanical force to control luminescence—mechanofluorochromism. 3. Singlet-oxygen responsive materials. Singlet oxygen (1O2) is a critical reactive oxygen species in photodynamic therapy for cancer as well as in damage to plants upon overexposure to light. Its photochemical production is also chemically amplified through a photochemical reaction, which is the lynchpin of several commercial bioanalytical technologies. Through a combination of fundamental physical organic chemistry and materials chemistry, we have luminescent conjugated polymer nanoparticles as probes for 1O2 in water that shows improved limit of detection over the commercially available luminescent probe for 1O2.

Research/Areas of Interest: nanoelectronics, biosensing, biomaterials, tissue engineering, drug delivery

Research/Areas of Interest: Experimental condensed matter physics; physics education For most of my career, my primary physics research area has been experimental surface science. In my lab at 574 Boston Ave., my students and I have studied what happens when foreign atoms and molecules form chemical bonds with metal surfaces. Our research has had implications for a range of potential applications including catalysis, chemical sensing, and the growth of thin films and nanoparticles on surfaces. In recent years my focus has shifted towards physics education, at both the college and, especially, at the elementary school level. Together with collaborators at a local nonprofit organization and at other universities, I have helped to develop and study curriculum materials and professional development strategies for the study of matter and energy in grades 3-5. In my own classes at Tufts, I have implemented and studied a range of instructional approaches aimed at more effective and equitable learning.

Research/Areas of Interest: functional languages, compilers for embedded systems, program analysis and optimization, embedded domain-specific languages

Research/Areas of Interest: Currently we are pursuing the following major projects: Current Projects 1) Modulation of Nociception. — The ability to sense and respond to harmful events (nociception) is ubiquitous in the animal kingdom and in many animals results in a longer lasting sensation called pain. Nociception is a distinct sensory modality that promotes the avoidance of damaging interactions using molecular mechanisms that are well-conserved from single cell organisms to humans. Nociception typically elicits strong responses, such as aggressive or avoidance movements, but these must be chosen appropriately and enhanced (hyperalgesia) or suppressed (hypoalgesia), depending on the circumstances. Our laboratory uses an insect, the tobacco hornworm Manduca sexta, as a model system to study the neurobiology of nociception and its modulation. 2) Neuromechanics of Locomotion — Animal locomotion is an intricate interplay between neural processes and biomechanics. These components have co-evolved to form "neuromechanical" control systems in which neural commands organize actions and the structures and materials of the body translate these commands into movements. In some cases structures are able to accomplish movements with relatively little or no command input, but most behaviors in natural environments require intricate neural patterning. In animals that have stiff skeletons (such as vertebrates and adult stage arthropods), these motor programs rely on the constraints imposed by joints to reduce the degrees of freedom and simplify control. In contrast to animals with skeletons, soft animals do not have the same limits on movements; they can deform in complex ways and have virtually unlimited degrees of freedom. One of our major research goals is to identify how soft animals control their movements in a computationally efficient manner using the principles of embodiment and morphological computation. 3) SoftWorm Robots — a soft machine development platform — Based on extensive neuromechanical studies of soft bodied locomotion in animals, we have developed a family of actuated modules that are being used as development platforms for soft robots. These robots are about 10-15 cm long and weigh between 4g and 30g. Earlier designs were fabricated by vacuum casting silicone elastomers into 3D-printed molds, our current methods include printing the devices in a soft rubbery polymer using a multi-material 3D printer. These devices are actuated with shape-memory alloy (SMA) microcoils that can be controlled with current pulses. We have also constructed similar robots with back-drivable Maxon motors coupled to the body using flexible "tendons". The body shapes can be changed to any desired form, but most of our current prototypes resemble caterpillars or worms. They can crawl, inch or roll and even climb steep inclines. 4) Tissue Engineering of Novel Devices — One of our long-term goals is to "grow" robotic devices using a combination of biosynthetic materials, cellular modulation, and tissue engineering. In collaboration with Professors Kaplan and Levin we are exploring both invertebrate and vertebrate cell culture and regeneration systems to structure muscles and supporting tissues on scaffolds of biomaterials. These scaffolds could be degradable or allowed to remain as part of an operational biorobot. Such biological devices will be controlled using the simulation tools developed for synthetic soft robots and will exploit recent advances in soft material electronics. For these cell-based systems, we are generating bundles of contractile skeletal muscle tissue using insect muscle cells. These constructs will be engineered to contract in a controlled, coordinated fashion for eventual use as motors in soft robots. Insect cells offer novel features, such as high force, low oxygen demand, and low sterility requirements that are particularly advantageous. This work is also being applied in the field of Cellular Agriculture to develop sustainable ethical food production.

Research/Areas of Interest: Algebraic geometry, topology, and differential geometry

Research/Areas of Interest: film theory, philosophy and aesthetics of film, avant-garde film, film and modernism

Research/Areas of Interest: Biomechanics and Neural Control of Locomotion

Research/Areas of Interest: stem cell and tissue engineering, optogenetics, diabetes

Research/Areas of Interest: Industrial and Urban U.S., Immigration

Research/Areas of Interest: Population genetics, evolution, ecology, computational biology

Research/Areas of Interest: Emotion and Emotion Regulation

Research/Areas of Interest: Physical and Surface Chemistry. The Utz group studies how molecules react on surfaces. Reactions at the gas-surface interface are highly dynamical events. Large-scale atomic and vibrational motions transform reactants into products on sub-ps and Å scales. The experiments probe ultrafast nuclear motion and energy flow dynamics that underlie heterogeneous catalysis and chemical vapor deposition. The goal is to to better model existing processes and direct the rational design of new catalytic materials and deposition techniques. The experiments use vibrational- and rotational-state selective laser excitation of molecules in a supersonic molecular beam to provide precise control over the energetics and orientation of the gas-phase reagent as it approaches the surface. Reaction probability and product identity is then quantified as a function of the reagent's energetic configuration. These experiments have shown that the vibrational state of the incident molecule can have a profound effect on reaction probability, and suggest that energy redisribution within the reaction complex is not complete prior to reaction and that the competing kinetics of energy redistribution and reaction might be manipulated to control the outcome of a reaction. This has been subsequently confirmed by exerting bond-elective control over a heterogeneously catalyzed reaction.