Corwin Kerr
Corwin obtained his Ph.D. in chemical engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Previously, he obtained his B.S. in chemical engineering from NC State, where he researched microfluidic reactor technologies. He has had experience in both experimental and computational work on colloids, which are suspensions of one phase of matter in another.
His Ph.D. focused on strategies to actuate and control crystals made out of colloidal particles. He presented a tabletop dislocation model at the Natural History museum. He also contributes to open source software projects on scientific data management.
In his free time he enjoys biking, cooking, singing, and gardening. His favorite colloid is espresso.
Dissertation Research
Crystals are repeating structures that are generally thought of as rigid, so how can they bend?
When moving a large carpet across the floor, it takes too much energy to move all at once, but lifting and shaking one edge propagates the ripple which gradually shifts the carpet. The ripple is a defect in the arrangement in the carpet.
The analogous defect in crystals is the dislocation. By controlling dislocations, we can selectively control the deformation of a colloidal crystal.