Members

Prabhakar Ranganathan

Prabhakar obtained his PhD in Chemical Engineering from Monash University in 2005. He worked with Ravi Jagadeeshan and Tam Sridhar on Brownian Dynamics of single polymer chains. After a couple of years of postdocking with Edie Sevick at the Australian National University, Canberra, he started his career as an independent researcher in the Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering at Monash in 2007. He is broadly interested in mathematical modeling, rheology and fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, and the philosophy of science. He teaches fluid mechanics (MEC3451) and research practice (MEC6410). He is currently the Treasurerat the Australian Society of Rheology. Outside work, Prabhakar enjoys Carnatic music.  

Shibani Veeraragavan

Shibani studied Chemical Engineering at Monash University Malaysia (2014-2018). She joined the Complex Fluids group in 2019 as a PhD candidate and is co-supervised by Reza Nosrati. She works on simulating internally-driven microfilaments to help understand the swimming behaviour of microorganisms like sperm. She also works with experimental groups to extract information about flagellar energetics from videos of sperm, extending work done by Ashwin Nandagiri. Apart from research, Shibani takes up teaching associate roles in the department. She enjoys traveling and being amidst nature, and can often be found outdoors.  

Supriya Bajpai

Supriya works as Public Relations Manager for the Complex Fluid Systems group. She joined the group as a PhD student under a joint doctoral program by Monash University and Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. She obtained her master’s degree from IIT Roorkee in Hydrology. She works on modelling and simulation of biological cells/tissues and understanding the physics behind their complicated behaviour such as their collective motion and complex mechanical and chemical pattern formation. To get a better understanding of the complex tissue behaviour she analyses the data qualitatively as well as quantitatively using various data analysis techniques.  

Mohammad Imran

Imaran joined the lab as a Ph.D. student under a joint doctoral program run by Monash University and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, India. He has a master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from IIT Guwahati. His work explores the mechanism behind active furrowing in bacterial colonies. Imaran also enjoys playing badminton, reading history/socio-political issues, and cooking. He can be reached at imaran.md@monash.edu.  

Joseph Connell

Joseph joined the group as a PhD candidate through Monash University, where he completed his undergraduate studies in Mechanical Engineering and Commerce. His work focuses on modeling the effects of molecular parameters in extensional flows of polymeric fluids. In his spare time, Joseph enjoys playing field hockey and spending time with friends. Joseph is based in the Woodside building at Clayton and can be reached at Joseph.Connell@monash.edu  

Santosh Daware

Santosh is working on experimentally synthesizing for the first time sheets of colloidal particles and characterizing their configurational and mechanical properties. He is co-supervised by Prof. Guruswamy Kumaraswamy at the IITB-Monash Research Academy. 

 

Alumni

Dr. Ashwin Nandagiri  (PhD, 2020; currently Post. Doc. Fellow at Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore)

Dr. Amarender Nagilla (PhD, 2019; currently Post. Doc. Fellow at Natl. Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore)

Dr. Amarin McDonnell (PhD, 2016; currently Engineering Product Manager, RMIT University, Melbourne)

Dr. Gopesh Tilvawala (MS by Research, 2015; PhD, U. Cal., San Diego)

Dr. Anuja Mehrotra (Postdoctoral Fellow, 2012-13; currently Data Scientist, Genworth, Sydney) Dr. Siddharth Gadkari (PhD: 2013; currently Assistant Professor, U. Surrey, Guildford, UK)