Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering | University of California San Diego
Microscale Flow Modeling
Saintillan Research Group
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Welcome to the Saintillan Research Group!

Our research centers on the study of fundamental fluid mechanics problems involving complex fluids and complex flows, typically on small scales. We use a combination of modeling, theory, and numerical simulations to study the dynamics and properties of flows involving a microstructure (such as particles, macromolecules, swimming micro-organisms, biopolymers) suspended in and interacting with a viscous fluid, as arise in many biophysical, environmental, and technological processes. We are particularly interested in fluid flow problems in which complexity arises from: multiphysics phenomena in which the interactions of various effects (mechanical, electric, chemical, or thermal) lead to complex dynamics; the effects of long-ranged hydrodynamic interactions on fluctuations and pattern formation; the coupling of a large number of degrees of freedom (such as particle configurations). Many of our current problems of interest are motivated by simple experiments, biological phenomena, or engineering applications, and their solution often involves applied mathematics, large-scale computation, and comparisons to experimental data. More details on our recent work can be found in our publications.


Group Photo Current members of the Saintillan Research Group (December 2024): David Saintillan, Tanumoy Dhar, Dalia Barragan, Nick Broussinos, Cuncheng Zhu, Yuchen Hou, Yuzhu Chen.

Recent News

June 2026: Congratulations to Yuzhu Chen for successfully defending her Ph.D. thesis entitled: "Active transport on curved surfaces"!

May 2026: Prof. Saintillan gave an invited Fluid Mechanics Seminar in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at National Seoul University in Seoul, South Korea.

May 2026: Prof. Saintillan gave an invited seminar in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Kyung Hee University in Seoul, South Korea.

May 2026: Prof. Saintillan gave an invited seminar at the Institute of Physics of Academia Sinica in Taipei, Taiwan.

May 2026: Prof. Saintillan gave an invited Fluid Mechanics Seminar in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University.

Gallery of Images

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