Luca Scharrer ‘22 (CCS Physics) key in groundbreaking fluid dynamics research

CCS alumnus and team develop novel methods to control chaotic fluid flows

Luca Scharrer ‘22 (CCS Physics), a current graduate student at the University of Chicago, has played a pivotal role in groundbreaking research at UC Santa Barbara (UCSB). Collaborating with colleagues from the University of Michigan, the University of Chicago, and UCSB's Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP), the team developed design rules to control chaotic flows in active fluids using topological defects.

Luca’s contributions, initiated during his undergraduate studies at CCS, highlight the transformative potential of undergraduate research. Potential applications of this work range from biological processes to soft robotics and fluid-based logic devices.

"My contributions to this project were primarily in the form of conducting 'numerical experiments,' with occasional forays into more pen-and-paper theory research," Luca commented, continuing, "I developed a piece of code to simulate the hydrodynamic equations that describe the system we're interested in—topological defects in active nematics— and used it to test some hypotheses that my collaborators made about the system in the past. I found some really interesting, unexpected behavior, and then spent the next few years working with my collaborators to develop a mathematical description of what we'd found."

Luca explained that their analytical results led to the development of design principles for guiding the motion of defects in these fluids, unlocking a new way to control complex, chaotic active matter.

"This achievement means a few things to me; on a personal level, it's the culmination of a lifelong dream of mine, of being able to contribute something genuinely new to the sum total of human knowledge, and I really hope it's just the first in a long career of such additions," Luca said. "On a broader scale, if the techniques we propose here are able to be realized in biological or bio-inspired systems, it could potentially open up a whole new world of biomedical technology, allowing for unprecedented control in the mechanics and growth of certain tissues, bacterial swarms, and other active materials."

While these techniques currently exist only in simulations, Luca is optimistic about their potential. "At this point, we're a long way off from technological applications, but I do believe there's a lot of incredible potential here, and I'm excited to see what other scientists will be able to do with our results."

Luca also emphasized the importance of curiosity-driven research. "We started this project because we were just fascinated by the fundamental physics of active topological defects, and along the way, we developed, almost accidentally, a whole new way of controlling chaotic active fluids. If we'd gone into this project with the objective of just turning a profit off of a new control technique, it's likely we'd never have found anything at all."

The College congratulates Luca’s research team on their significant contributions, underscoring the value of scientific inquiry and its potential to create transformative advancements.

Read more about this research in The Current article, May 22, 2024.