Welcome to the Van Lehn Group!

We use molecular simulations and data-centric methods to characterize, predict, and engineer the behavior of synthetic and biological soft materials. We study a range of soft materials, including nanoparticles, peptides, lipid membranes, liquid crystals, and polymers, for applications relevant to human health, sustainability, and energy. Our research is purely computational and is complemented by close collaborations with a variety of experimental groups. Current research directions include (1) designing synthetic materials to interact with biological systems for applications in drug delivery and biosensing, (2) screening solvents for polymer dissolution and depolymerization for applications in plastics recycling and biomass valorization, (3) uncovering rules governing interactions with lipid membranes for drug delivery and antimicrobial applications, and (4) understanding structure in complex liquid environments for applications in biomaterials design, energy storage, and catalysis.

  • Welcome to Ali!

    The group is thrilled to welcome another first-year student – Ali Altamimi! Ali is the first student from the Department of Chemistry to join the group – read more about him at the People page. …

  • Welcome to Changsu and Jung Min!

    The group is thrilled to welcome two new first-year students – Changsu Kim and Jung Min Lee! Changsu and Jung Min are both graduate students in Chemical and Biological Engineering – read more about them …

  • New article about the STRAP process

    Check out this new article about the Solvent-Targeted Recovery and Precipitation (STRAP) process, featuring Van Lehn group members!

  • Two projects funded through Research Forward program!

    We are grateful that two new collaborative projects have been funded through the UW-Madison Research Forward competition, which helps seed collaborative research that could promote future center-level proposals. The two projects broadly relate to group …

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