Ryan Poling-Skutvik

I am looking to hire PhD students to join our Multiphase & Multiscale Flow Lab in Mechanical Engineering @univofmaryland.bsky.social
Background in ME, Physics, ChemE, Civil (or related), interest in fluid mechanics/soft matter, and hands-on lab work are key.
Please help spread the word!

Stability and Anomalous Aggregation in Suspensions of Polymer-Grafted Nanoparticles Polymer-grafted nanoparticles (PGNPs) are a class of hybrid materials with properties intermediate between those of polymer and colloidal systems. Here, we assess how polymer conformation and solvent ...

Fresh off the press in @pubs.acs.org! Our group aims to understand the phase behavior of polymer-grafted nanoparticles. Here, we find that:

1. The RATE of aggregation is a more precise metric to define phase boundaries than size, and
2. PGNPs aggregate like globular polymers rather than colloids.

I have the great privilege to return to my alma mater @cooperunion.bsky.social to give a seminar today. It’s been over a decade since I was last on campus and it still brings back so many memories.

I’m going to be discussing our work on biomaterials and soft matter physics.

International STEM internship opportunities through global exchange program partnership University of Rhode Island students in STEM fields can select from a robust list of international internships from around the globe with new affiliation with the International Association for the Exch...

It's been my pleasure to host Blanca Sesé this semester working in my group!

She has joined us from the University of Zaragoza through our partnership in the IAESTE program and is working on building thermally responsive hydrogels from cellulose.

web.uri.edu/engineering/...

Not a hike for the weak!

Congrats on the accomplishment and looks like those views were quite the reward 🤩🤩

Woohoo!! 🎉🎉 what a great team doing what sounds like it’ll be super cool science!!

🔊 Listen Now: Casualties of Trump’s War on Higher Ed Up First From NPR on NPR One | 28:38

A good summary from @npr.org on the impact of recent political attacks on the university education and research system

Casualties of Trump’s War on Higher Ed one.npr.org/i/nx-s1-5545...

Our NIH ESTEEMED grant may have been reinstated this year, but that doesn't mean the impacts to our students have disappeared. Nor does it come with any guarantees...

Thanks @rhodeislandcurrent.com for the follow up coverage and focus on the students bearing the brunt of these decisions.

Trump Is Shutting Down the War On Cancer America’s cancer research system, which has helped save millions of lives, is under threat in one of its most productive moments.

“It will take decades to recover from this, if we ever do.” America’s cancer research system, which has helped save millions of lives and is in one of its most productive moments, is under threat by the Trump administration.

RPS Lab celebrating the start of the year watching the Rhode Island Football Club

Congrats, Dan!

That yield stress though…

But separates out chemical engineering… 🤔

Always love flying into Chicago

Shockingly my name is easy to find...

BUT, we find significant changes in the DYNAMICS. Specifically, we find a 50% reduction in activation energy due to the physical absorption of hydrocarbons. While expected, we believe our work shows how activation energy can be a highly sensitive metric to investigate subtle changes to polymers.

Environmental Aging of Polymers to Evaluate Their Potential for Remediating Natural Gas Pipelines We assess the aging of polymeric materials in natural gas environments for potential applications in pipeline remediation as liner materials. Three commercially available polymers─high-density polyethylene (HDPE), Nylon-6/6 polyamide (PA), and polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF)─are aged under accelerated conditions in a model natural gas environment of pure alkanes at 250 PSI and 90 °C for up to 30 days. The Young’s modulus and yield stress of these polymers remain unchanged within experimental error after exposure to the natural gas environment. Dynamic mechanical analysis, however, reveals drastic changes to polymer chain dynamics, with the activation energy for segmental relaxations reduced by up to 50%, corresponding to accelerated molecular motion. The environmental aging is confirmed through FTIR, which found an increase in the density of natural gas molecules within the polymer matrices. Additionally, these changes in the dynamics within polymeric solids are reversible; prolonged removal from the gas atmosphere resulted in the activation energies returning to near-initial values within 2 weeks. These observations suggest that this aging response is dominated by physical processes in which the polymers absorb natural gas molecules due to the increase in partial pressures, as opposed to a chemical mechanism in which the natural gas reacts irreversibly with the polymer chains. In applications for pipeline remediation, our results indicate that polymeric liners will provide sufficient mechanical rigidity but may suffer from accelerated rates of creep facilitated by the increase in local polymer dynamics.

New publication out today in @pubs.acs.org I&ECR!

Sponsored by USDOT PHMSA, this paper finds that natural gas does not significantly modify the polymer mechanics, making polymer liners a safe and effective option for natural gas pipelines.

It’s like opening a refrigerator to cool your house…

As a child of lesbians, something similar would happen to us when we tried to go between Canada and USA. In fact had the border guard asking my sister and I to say who our “real” mom was…

To their credit, I’m glad they are acknowledging it rather than pretending like everything is normal… but I did need to have a conversation with my students about safety 😔

The @universityofri.bsky.social is hiring an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering with research interests in applied fluid dynamics and thermal sciences.

The hiring is on a rapid timeline so please apply ASAP. More information in link below. I am also happy to answer any questions!

Inside a Globe story about a case of academic fraud that tested MIT’s president - The Boston Globe The basics of the scandal have been known for years, but the Globe's reporting uncovered new details.

Today’s Starting Point goes inside a cancer research scandal that unfolded on the watch of future MIT president Sally Kornbluth.

The only kind of balloon I’ve ever known

Anyone want to take a guess as to why @ripta.com are facing a $10m budget gap?

McKee wanting it both ways. Cutting funds but blaming the agency for needing to cut service.

Crazy how the shrimp assemble like that!

Count me as one of those advocates. I take @ripta.com almost daily to work and see many of my @universityofri.bsky.social students on the 66. The reduction in service will dramatically reduce access for our commuting students to reach campus, or for on-campus students to conduct basic errands.

RPS Lab members celebrating masters defense

Celebrating our lab's newest graduate, Kylie Hartley, who passed her Masters defense last Friday! 🥳🎓🍺

She has been an incredibly productive student in her time in our group working on developing polymer-based anodes for microbial fuel cells, and we are so proud of her current and future success!

my group is looking to hire a postdoc to work on a variety of polymer-related projects of their choosing! If you know of any outstanding candidates that are looking for postdoctoral positions, please send them my way

A study in contrasts from Arizona to New Hampshire

New Cottrell Scholars and Holland Award recipients raise their trophies in celebration.

Members of all but four cohorts of #CottrellScholars since 1994 were in Tucson this week to welcome a new group of outstanding teacher-scholars to this special community. Congratulations!