Steve Granick
Professor of Chemistry,
Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering and Physics
Founder Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
Professor Granick received his B.A. cum laude from Princeton University in 1978 and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1982. He joined the faculty of the University of Illinois in 1985 following postdoctoral research at the Collège de France with P.-G. de Gennes and at the University of Minnesota with Matthew Tirrell. His research interests are in the areas of single-molecule methods, polymers, complex fluids, and biomaterials.
Research
We use methods of physical, analytical, and materials chemistry to study molecules at surfaces. For example, thin films and interfaces of complex fluids (polymers, biopolymers, and other structured fluids) are at the heart of an enormous range of scientific and technological problems: drug delivery, colloidal stability and flocculation, coatings, lubrication, adhesion, chromatographic separation, polymer reinforcement with particulate fillers, and the blood compatibility of artificial internal organs. Students in the research group thus gain broad training in a variety of subjects.
Some experiments aim to measure single-molecule behavior, other experiments to measure the ensemble average. With unique instruments in the laboratory we study the motions and relaxations of fluid molecules in intimate contact with a solid surface. We measure equilibrium surface forces and also their dynamical responses over a wide range of excitation frequency and shear rate. A key point of this work is that interfacial forces depend strongly on time and rate. We would like to understand these rates, and learn how to control them. This research gets down to the fundamentals of surface-surface interactions, adhesion, friction, and surface recognition, at the direct level of molecular forces.
We also make much use of femtosecond laser fluorescence spectroscopy, and also of fluorescence imaging methods, to probe the surface diffusion rates, rotational relaxation times, surface conformations, and binding-unbinding rates of polymers, polyelectrolytes, DNA, and proteins. The surfaces are metallic, inorganic, and biological (lipid bilayers). These questions of the surface mobility of polymers and biopolymers, and how and why the relaxation between states is different from in the bulk, form the basis of many significant scientific problems to whose solution we would like to contribute - in areas from tribology to biology.
Students in this group include chemists, physicists, and engineers. This diversity of background and perspective helps to maintain a particularly stimulating environment.
Postdoctoral positions are sometimes available for persons with experience in laser spectroscopy. Inquiries are always welcome.
Publications
"How to Stabilize Phospholipid Liposomes (Using Nanoparticles)", L. Zhang, S. Granick, Nano Lett. 6, 694 (2006). (pdf) Highlighted: Science 311, 1347 (2006); Nature Materials 5, 249 (2006).
"Electrostatic Stitching in Gel-Phase Supported Phospholipid Bilayers", L. Zhang, T. Spurlin, A. A. Gewirth, S. Granick, J. Phys. Chem. B 110, 33 (2006). (pdf) Highlighted: Science 310, 1871 (2005)
"Stressed Molecules Break Down" (News and Views), S. Granick and S. C. Bae, Nature 440, 160 (2006). (pdf)
"Slaved Diffusion in Phospholipid Bilayers,"L. Zhang and S. Granick, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA 102, 9118 (2005). (pdf)
"Chemical Imaging in a Surface Forces Apparatus: Confocal Raman Spectroscopy of Confined PDMS," S. C. Bae, H. Lee, Z. Lin, and S. Granick, Langmuir 13, 5685 (2005). (pdf)
"Patterns Formed by Droplet Evaporation from a Restricted Geometry," Z. Lin and S. Granick, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 127, 2816 (2005). (pdf)
Awards
- Chair, Division of Polymer Physics, American Physical Society, 2006
- Editorial board member: Journal of Physical Chemistry, Journal of Polymer Science B, Polymer, Tribology Letters
- Guest Professor of Chemical Physics, Univ. Sci. and Technology of China (USTC), 2006 to date
- Associate, Center for Advanced Study, UIUC, 2005-2006
- Vice-Chair, Division of Polymer Physics, American Physical Society, 2004-2005
- Invited Foreign Professor, University of Bordeaux (France), 2003
- Guest Professor of Polymer Chemistry, Peking University, 2002 to date
- Chaire Paris-Science Lectures, 2002
- Named as Founder Chair of Engineering, 1999
- Plenary Lecture, Society of Rheology, 1998
- University Scholar, UIUC, 1997-1998
- Visiting Professor, Kyoto University, Japan, 1994
- Senior Xerox Award, UIUC, 1993
- NSF Award for Special Creativity, 1993
- Fellow, American Physical Society, 1992 -
