Welcome to the Van Lehn Group!

We are a group in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. We develop and apply molecular simulation methods to characterize, predict, and engineer the physicochemical properties of synthetic and biological soft materials. We broadly seek to uncover relationships between nanoscale properties and macroscopic behavior in order to inform materials design, and particularly focus on understanding interactions at complex, multicomponent interfaces. We study a range of systems, including nanoparticles, peptides, surfactants, liquid crystals, and polymers, for applications in drug delivery, environmental sensing, plastic recycling, catalysis, and self-assembly.
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 …
May 24, 2023New CUWP paper and poster prize!
Congratulations to Pan on his new paper in Green Chemistry! In this paper, we use molecular-scale modeling techniques to generate a database of solubilities for common plastic resins in a wide range of organic solvents. …
May 21, 2023Reid joins the Theoretical Chemistry Institute!
Reid was recently approved as an affiliate of the Department of Chemistry at UW-Madison! This affiliation will permit closer collaboration with Chemistry faculty members and the recruitment of Chemistry students to further promote interdisciplinary research …
April 17, 2023Carlos awarded NSF Fellowship!
Many congratulations to Carlos Huang-Zhu, who was awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program award! Bravo on the well-deserved award!
March 30, 2023- More News