Professor
David J. Pine
New York University
Area
Mathematical and Physical Sciences
Specialty
Engineering and Technology
Elected
2018
Professor Pine is a leader in soft matter science, having developed several widely-used experimental techniques, including "Diffusing-Wave Spectroscopy" and new methods of colloidal self-assembly.
Starting in the late 1980s, he developed a light scattering technique, in collaboration with others, called Diffusing-Wave Spectroscopy. It allows researchers to measure the microscopic movements small particles suspended in liquids that are opaque, greatly expanding the utility of light scattering techniques, which were previously limited to transparent liquids. It has become a standard technique and is widely used to investigate and characterize materials like milk, paint, blood, proteins, and similar materials.
More recently, he developed synthetic methods to make new kinds of microparticles that have DNA arranged in orderly patches on the particle surfaces, with 1, 2, 3, 4, and more, distinct patches. Particles with one patch are called “Janus" particles after the Roman god with two faces. These patches permit the assembly the particles into fibers, sheets, as well as unique ordered crystals, such as the diamond and pyrochlore structures, that are otherwise difficult or impossible to make.
Pine also developed so-called "lock-and-key" microparticles, where one set of particles has a dimple that another set of particles can precisely fit into, like a key fitting into a lock, which has served as a model for how proteins sometimes interact with each other.
He also a discovered that small particles in a viscous liquid (like honey) do not undergo reversible trajectories when the system is sheared back and forth, which was something of a surprise. More importantly, he discovered a dynamical transition between reversible and irreversible trajectories. This transition has become known as "Random organization" and has opened up a new area of research and actively pursued by research groups around the world.
Starting in the late 1980s, he developed a light scattering technique, in collaboration with others, called Diffusing-Wave Spectroscopy. It allows researchers to measure the microscopic movements small particles suspended in liquids that are opaque, greatly expanding the utility of light scattering techniques, which were previously limited to transparent liquids. It has become a standard technique and is widely used to investigate and characterize materials like milk, paint, blood, proteins, and similar materials.
More recently, he developed synthetic methods to make new kinds of microparticles that have DNA arranged in orderly patches on the particle surfaces, with 1, 2, 3, 4, and more, distinct patches. Particles with one patch are called “Janus" particles after the Roman god with two faces. These patches permit the assembly the particles into fibers, sheets, as well as unique ordered crystals, such as the diamond and pyrochlore structures, that are otherwise difficult or impossible to make.
Pine also developed so-called "lock-and-key" microparticles, where one set of particles has a dimple that another set of particles can precisely fit into, like a key fitting into a lock, which has served as a model for how proteins sometimes interact with each other.
He also a discovered that small particles in a viscous liquid (like honey) do not undergo reversible trajectories when the system is sheared back and forth, which was something of a surprise. More importantly, he discovered a dynamical transition between reversible and irreversible trajectories. This transition has become known as "Random organization" and has opened up a new area of research and actively pursued by research groups around the world.
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