Rastko Sknepnek
Lecturer in Physics and Dundee Fellow
School of Science and Engineering
School of Life Sciences
University of Dundee
Discovery Centre, Room 2.28
Dundee DD1 5EH
United Kingdom
e-mail: r.sknepnek AT dundee DOT ac DOT uk
phone: +44 (0) 1382 385699
Research Interests
- Pattern formation in curved spaces
- Physics of liquid and solid membranes
- Self-assembly in nanocomposite materials
- Active particles on curved spaces
- Cell and tissue mechanics
Selected publications
- C. M. Funkhouser, R. Sknepnek, T. Shimi, A. E. Goldman, R. D. Goldman, M. Olvera de la Cruz, A Mechanical Model of Blebbing in Nuclear Lamin Meshworks, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 110 (9) 3248-3253 (2013).
- T. Li, R. Sknepnek, R. J. Macfarlane, C. A. Mirkin, and M. Olvera de la Cruz, Modeling the Crystallization of Spherical Nucleic Acid Nanoparticle Conjugates with Molecular Dynamics Simulations, Nano Lett., 2012, 12 (5), pp 2509–2514.
- R. Sknepnek and M. Olvera de la Cruz, Nonlinear elastic model for faceting of vesicles with soft grain boundaries, Phys. Rev. E 85, 050501(R) (2012).
- R. Sknepnek, G. Vernizzi, M. Olvera de la Cruz, Buckling of multicomponent elastic shells with line tension, Soft Matter, 8, 636 (2012).
- R. Sknepnek, G. Vernizzi, M. Olvera de la Cruz, Shape change of nano-containers via a reversible ionic buckling, Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 215504 (2011).
- G. Vernizzi, R. Sknepnek, M. Olvera de la Cruz, Platonic and Archimedean geometries in multi-component elastic membranes, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 108, 4292 (2011).
- R. Sknepnek, G. Samolyuk, Y.B. Lee, J. Schmalian, Anisotropic pairing in the iron pnictides, Phys. Rev. B 79, 054511 (2009).
- R. Sknepnek, J. A. Anderson, M. H. Lamm, J. Schmalian, and A. Travesset, Nanoparticle Ordering via Functionalized Block Copolymers in Solution, ACS Nano 2, 1259 (2008).
- R. Sknepnek, T. Vojta, M. Vojta, Exotic vs. conventional scaling and universality in a disordered bilayer quantum Heisenberg antiferromagnet, Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 097201 (2004).
Academic Positions
- lecturer in physics and Dundee Fellow 2013 to present
School of Engineering, Physics and Mathematics
University of Dundee - distinguished university postdoctoral scholar 2012 to 2013
Soft Matter Program
Department of Physics, Syracuse University - research associate 2009 to 2012
Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University
advisor: Prof. Monica Olvera de la Cruz - postdoctoral research associate 2006 to 2009
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Iowa State University and Ames Lab
advisors: Prof. Joerg Schmalian (Physics) and Prof. Monica H. Lamm (Chemical and Biological Engineering) - postdoctoral research associate 2004 to 2006
Department of Physics, McMaster University
advisors: Prof. Catherine Kallin and Prof. A. John Berlinsky. - research assistant 2002 to 2004
Department of Physics, Missouri Univerity of Scinece and Technology
advisor: Prof. Thomas Vojta - research assistant 2000 to 2002
Institute for Physics, Chemnitz University of Technology (Germany)
advisor: Prof. Thomas Vojta
Education
- PhD in Physics 2004
Missouri Univerity of Scinece and Technology (formerly Univeristy of Missouri-Rolla)
adviser: Prof. Thomas Vojta
Note: Transferred from TU Chemnitz (Germany) to MST in 2002 following Prof. Vojta’s appointment at MST. - Diploma in Theoretical Physics 2000
Belgrade University, Serbia
adviser: Prof. Sava Milosevic
Honors and Awards
- Dundee Fellow 2013
- Distinguished University Postdoctoral Fellow, Syracuse University 2012
- Scherer Graduate Research Prize for best graduate student research 2002
- Scholarship for Talented Students awarderd by Oil Industry of Serbia 1995