Alban Sauret is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He did his undergraduate and graduate studies in France, followed by a postdoctoral training at Princeton University. After a few years working as a CNRS researcher in a joint CNRS/Saint-Gobain laboratory near Paris (France), he joined UC Santa Barbara in 2018.
Alban grew up in the south of France and is still trying to (unsuccessfully) hide his French accent. In his spare time, he enjoys trail running in the Santa Barbara area.
Sreeram Rajesh is a fourth-year graduate student in Mechanical Engineering. He completed his undergraduate degree in Manufacturing Engineering from BITS Pilani, India, and worked for a year at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, to model erosion-based polishing mechanisms. He is working on the complex interactions between particles and non-Newtonian fluids.
Sreeram was born and brought up in Kerala, India. He spends his free time reading, watching soccer, cooking, or top roping at the climbing center.
Ram Sudhir Sharma is a third-year graduate student in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He did his undergraduate studies (‘19) at Clark University, studying Physics and Philosophy and did his Master’s there in Physics as well. At Clark, he worked in Arshad Kudrolli’s lab working on experiments in granular suspensions and dissolution. In the M&M Flow Lab, he is the specialist of cohesive granular materials.
Ram was born and raised in Pune, India, and has been in boarding schools since he was 10. In his free time, he enjoys reading philosophy and taking long walks. Recently he’s been trying to get better at cooking and chess.
Anant Kumar Yadav is a first-year PhD student in Mechanical Engineering at University of Maryland, College Park. He received his B.S. from Tribhuvan University (Pulchowk Campus, Nepal) in 2020 and completed his M.S. at the Indian Institute of Technology Bhilai in 2022. Before joining UMD, he worked as a research analyst in India. At UMD he is working on clogging in various fluidic systems.
Originally from the Mithila region of Nepal, Anant enjoys cooking, movies, running, and swimming in his free time.
Valentin Richard is a visiting MS student from ENS Paris-Saclay, France. He discovered his interest in fluid mechanics through an internship at CEA Paris-Saclay (France), where he worked on turbulence. At UMD, he is exploring how turbulent flows can help reduce clogging in drip irrigation systems.
Originally from the Paris suburbs, Valentin enjoys basketball and running outside of research.
Jules Roth is a second-year graduate student at ESPCI Paris-PSL, France. Before joining the lab at UCSB he worked at AXIMA Nuclear in Lyon, where he oversaw both the technical and financial aspects of a building project, coordinated teams, managed client relations, and ensured everything was delivered on time and within budget. At UCSB, he is working on the erosion of cohesive grains by turbulent flows.
Jules grew up in Lyon, France, where he completed both high school and college. He later moved to Paris to study at ESPCI. Curious and energetic, he enjoys a variety of sports, including football, swimming, gym, climbing, and running, as well as traveling and spending time with friends.
Raaghav Thirumaligai (they/them) is an undergraduate student in Mechanical Engineering. They are fascinated with research and are interested in fluid mechanics as a possible focus. Currently, they are working on a system to characterize cohesion in granular materials and have worked on various projects, including the clogging of fiber suspensions.
Raaghav has lived in California, specifically the Bay Area for most of their life. They spend their free time waking up at unreasonable hours to watch Formula 1 and cycle.
Alexis Lin is an undergraduate student in mechanical engineering. She hopes to learn more about fluid mechanics and is currently exploring crater formations on a cohesive granular surface.
Alexis is from the Bay Area and, in her free time, she enjoys cooking and baking new recipes and gathering an array of art skills.
Thanvi Anand is an undergraduate student at UCSB, studying mechanical engineering. She is fascinated in understanding and researching clogging and the fluid dynamics behind this topic.
Thanvi is from the Bay Area, and enjoys pulling out her sketchbook and drawing whenever she gets the chance, while sipping a cup of hot chai.
Marc Noujeim is an undergraduate student studying Mechanical Engineering. He is interested in learning more about fluid mechanics and the dynamics of granular collapses. His current research focuses on experiments quantifying the Janssen effect.
Marc grew up in the Bay Area, and in his free time he enjoys watching sports, going on walks, biking, and traveling.
Kevin Zhao has an undergraduate degree in physics from UCSB. His research interests mainly lie in soft and living matter physics, such as fluid dynamics. He is also exploring more interdisciplinary topics, such as seismology, in Geophysics.
Kevin was born in Illinois but spent most of his life in Southern China. He loves traveling, watching movies, and just a little badminton and tennis.
Thomas Yu is an undergraduate student at UCSB, studying mechanical engineering. He is interested in understanding solid and fluid mechanics, including research on fluidization and drying of wet granular beds. He enjoys theoretical, experimental and computational work.
Thomas is from the Bay Area. Outside of his academic interests, he enjoys playing badminton, eating good food, and whistling.
Camron Hosseini is an undergraduate in echanical engineering at UCSB. His current research involves measuring hydraulic pressure losses across drip emitters.
Camron is from Sacramento and spends most of his free time assisting UCSB’s Formula SAE team, playing the guitar and drums, and spending time outdoors.
Ariana Gomez is an undergraduate student in geophysics at UCSB. Her research focuses on the bulk behavior of cohesive and noncohesive granular materials to better understand their properties and extend this study to large-scale models and environmental phenomena such as landslides, avalanches, and other geologic processes.
Ariana is from Peru and grew up in the Bay Area. She enjoys watching movies, going on road trips, and sleeping late.
Benny Xie is a third-year undergraduate student in Mechanical Engineering at UCSB. He is interested in fluid mechanics and is currently studying how mass flow rate of a granular materials depends on the angular velocity of a container.
Benny is from Southern California. In his free time, he enjoys reading science-fiction novels, cooking, and photography.
Alumni at UCSB (since 2018)
Former postdoctoral researchers
Former graduate students
Former undergraduate students
Former Visiting PhD Students
Former Visiting MS and BS Students
Former Visiting High-School Students
Previous Alumni at CNRS (France, 2014-2018)
Postdoctoral Researchers
Pascal Raux was a postdoctoral researcher (2017-2019) who focused on the spreading and atomization of films of suspensions. He is now a Research and Development Engineer in France.
Veronica Gavrilov was a postdoctoral researcher (2016-2017) at Saint-Gobain Recherche and SIMM Laboratory at ESPCI (France) in collaboration with Jeremie Teisseire (SGR), Etienne Barthel (SIMM) and Emilie Verneuil (SIMM). Her work focused on the development of slippery liquid-infused surfaces for anti-icing applications in polar environments.
Graduate Students
Quentin Magdelaine was a Ph.D. student (2016-2019) co-advised with Arnaud Antkowiak (Institut Jean Le Rond d'Alembert, Sorbonne University, France). He investigated the dynamics of heterogeneous liquid films and was funded by Saint-Gobain Recherche. He is now a Research Engineer at Saint-Gobain Recherche.
Guillaume Saingier was a PhD student (2015-2018) co-advised with Pierre Jop (Surface du Verre et Interfaces, France). His work was devoted to investigating the mechanisms and dynamics of interactions between grains and liquid and, particularly, to focus on the transition from dry to wet granular media. After his Ph.D., he became a Research Engineer at Saint-Gobain Recherche in France.
Aymeric Merceron was a PhD student (2013-2016) co-advised with Pierre Jop (Surface du Verre et Interfaces, France). He studied the behavior of reactive granular materials and, in particular, how reactive grains affect the transformation and structure of a granular packing. He then became a Research Engineer at Saint-Gobain Recherche.
Manon-Robbe Saule was a Ph.D. student (2016-2019) at FAST laboratory (Orsay, France) co-advised with Philippe Gondret, Cyprien Morize, and Yann Bertho. She investigated the generation of impulse waves following a granular collapse into water.
Florent Lachaussee was a Ph.D. student (2015-2018) at FAST laboratory (Orsay, France) co-advised with Philippe Gondret, Yann Bertho, and Cyprien Morize. His Ph.D. work characterized the erosion process in the vicinity of an immersed structure.
Master Students
Adrien Gans was a MS student from Paris-Saclay University in 2018. He focused on the dip coating and the drainage of suspensions.
Olivier Rembliere was a MS student from Paris-Saclay University in 2018, co-advised with Emilie Dressaire. He performed experiments to describe the flow of floating particles.
Guillaume Renard was an MS student from Paris-Saclay University in 2017, co-advised with Philippe Gondret and Cyprien Morize (FAST Laboratory, France). He considered the erosion of a granular bed by the impulse motion of a disc experimentally.
Marine Aulnette was an MS student from Paris-Saclay University in 2017, co-advised with Philippe Gondret and Cyprien Morize (FAST Laboratory, France). She worked on the erosion induced by the translation of a solid structure near a granular bed.
Benedicte Colnet was a MS student from Ecole Polytechnique in 2017, co-advised with Emilie Dressaire (NYU, US). She worked on the dip coating of particulate suspension, both at Saint-Gobain Recherche (France) and NYU (US).
Megane Muschi was an MS student from Chimie Paris in 2016, co-advised with Jeremie Teisseire (SVI, France) and Barbara Brudieu (SGR, France). She characterized the effects of the coating thickness on drop impact on SLIPS surfaces.
Anthony Troger was a MS student from ENS Lyon in 2016, co-advised with Pierre Jop (SVI, France). He studied the expansion and fragmentation of particle-laden liquid sheets experimentally.
Sylvain Chateau was an MS student from Polytech Marseille (France), co-advised with Philippe Gondret, Yann Bertho and Cyprien Morize at FAST Laboratory (France) in 2015. He worked on the erosion process in the vicinity of an immersed cylinder.
Guillaume Quibeuf was an MS student from Paris XI University in 2015, co-advised with Philippe Gondret and Cyprien Morize at FAST Laboratory (France). He characterized the erosion induced by the oscillation of a disc.
Houda Maimouni was a MS student from ENPC in 2015, co-advised with Pierre Jop (SVI, France). She worked on the accretion of flowing dry grains on wet aggregates.
Alice Boursier was a MS student from ESPCI in 2015, co-advised with Pierre Jop (SVI, France). She worked on the cohesion of bidisperse wet granular materials.