PI: Tyler Shendruk
Tyler is a computational physicist who models flowing, soft matter and biophysical systems in the School of Physics & Astronomy at the University of Edinburgh. Previously, he was Lecturer at Loughborough University, before which he was an Independent Fellow in the Center for Studies in Physics and Biology at Rockefeller University. During his time in the Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics at the University of Oxford working with Professor Julia Yeomans, he was an EMBO-Long Term Fellow, Research Associate in Wadham College and Non-stipendiary Junior Research Fellow in St. Hilda’s College. His PhD was with Professor Gary Slater at the University of Ottawa.
Graduate Student
Laila Saliekh
Laila studies the effects of bacterial chaining on the biofilm formation and its morphology. She did her Bachelor of physics in the Islamic University of Gaza, and Postgraduate Diploma at the International Centre of Theoretical Physics (ICTP). Her project in ICTP was on the study of the thermodynamic regimes that are performed by the active hair-cell bundles in the ear of a bullfrog, supervised by Edgar Roldan. Outside of physics, Laila enjoys cooking, swimming and weights lifting.
Graduate Student
Oleksandr Baziei
Oleksandr studies self-propelled particles in Viscek like systems. Most of the time is busy with the MPCD algorithm. He did his Bachelor and Master of Physics at the Odesa National Mechnikov University, Ukraine and currently doing PhD remotely from there. Outside of research working as Software Developer in automotive industry.
Graduate Student
François de Tournemire
François studies the role of DNA polymers during biofilm formation, and will use the group’s MPCD algorithm along with experiments to look into this active system. He previously studied at the University of Manchester, followed by a master’s in Biophysics at the Université Paris-Saclay. As part of this degree, he had a research internship on the role of topological defects on morphogenesis, supervised by Carles Blanch-Mercader at the Curie Institute. Outside of Physics, François likes to climb, hike, and explore new places.
Graduate Student
Zahra Valei
Zahra studies the dynamics of polymers suspended in passive and active nematic liquid crystals. She did her Bachelor and Master of Physics at the University of Tehran. Her master project was on the study of spatiotemporal growth of tumours, supervised by A. Ali Saberi. Outside of physics, Zahra likes doing puzzles and handcrafts like embroidery.
Graduate Student
Louise Head
Louise studies the dynamics of colloids suspended in passive and active nematic liquid crystals, developing the group’s MPCD algorithm. She was previously a Physics student at the University of Warwick, graduating in 2020. Her MPhys project was a theoretical study of the twist-bend nematic phase, supervised by Dr. Gareth Alexander. Outside of research, Louise is a two-time English Women’s Chess Champion (2017 and 2019) and was the President of the University of Warwick chess society in 2018-19.
Graduate Student
Timofey Kozhukhov
Tim studies active liquid crystals and novel new ways to simulate them. His main focus is on the group’s MPCD codebase, designing and implementing new collision operators for the simulation of active matter. He also helps to manage the group’s various code bases and code distribution via Git. Tim previously studied Mathematics at the University of Bristol, where he worked with Prof. Liverpool on the analysis of bacteria suspended in liquid crystals, and with Dr Henkes on the simulation of crowd dynamics and turbulence.
Undergraduate Project Students
Emma Allen (Senior Honours Student) 2024
Elena Espinosa Miñano (Senior Honours Student) 2024
Previous Members
Benjamín Loewe (Post-doc)
Currently Assist. Prof. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
Kristian Thijssen (Marie Curie post-doc)
Currently Novo Nordisk Fonden Emerging Investigator
Rory Claydon
Currently senior scientist in the Euclid Consortium
Ryan Keogh (PhD) Self-organised flow structures in confined active nematics, University of Edinburgh 2019-2023
Jack Paget (PhD) Complex tensors and simple layers: A theory for smectic fluids, Loughborough University 2019-2023
Karolina Wamsler (MPhys) Nematic Colloids in Microfluidic Confinement, University of Edinburgh, 2021-2022
Matt Chouzouris (MPhys) On the Effects of Bacterial Cell Geometry on inter-Species Interface Structure, University of Edinburgh, 2021-2022
EPSRC Undergraduate Vacation Internship Summer
Danial Dolan (MPhys) Spatial Effects in Continuum Bacterial Modelling, University of Edinburgh, 2021-2022
Frances McGinley (Summer Student) Polymicrobial Structure and Stability, University of Edinburgh, 2022
Una Alberti (Senior Honours Student) Smectic Gardening, University of Edinburgh, 2021-2022
Tom Bramwell (Senior Honours Student) Swimming Bacteria in Confined Liquid Crystals, University of Edinburgh, 2020-2021
Dan Buxton (Senior Honours Student) Losing That Planktonic Lifestyle, University of Edinburgh, 2020-2021
Holly Haworth, University of Edinburgh, 2020-2021
Keira Farmer, University of Edinburgh, 2020-2021
Alex Parker (MSc) Modelling Polymeric Materials in Internally Ordered Biofluids, Loughborough University, 2019-2020
Steven Norfolk (MSc) Collective dynamics of simulated swimming micro-organisms and self-ordering mono-layers under confinement, Loughborough University, 2019-2020
EPSRC Physics of Life Student Summer Bursary
Shendruk Research 
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