Jonathan Pham is an Associate Professor in Chemical Engineering with a secondary appointment Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Cincinnati. Prior to joining Cincinnati, he was an Assistant Professor at the University of Kentucky. He received a BS in Materials Science and Engineering from The Ohio State University, and earned a PhD in Polymer Science and Engineering from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he investigated nanoparticle assembly and mechanics. During this time, he was a Chateaubriand fellow at ESPCI-ParisTech studying deformation of microscale helical filaments by microfluidics. Prior to joining Kentucky, he was a Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research working on a range of topics, including cell-surface and liquid-surface interactions. Currently, his group focuses broadly on soft materials and interfaces.
Find more about Jonathan’s work via:
Group webpage https://sites.google.com/view/phamlab.
@JonTPham
Read Jonathan Pham’s Emerging Investigator article http://xlink.rsc.org/?doi=10.1039/D3SM00470H
How do you feel about Soft Matter as a place to publish research on this topic?
Soft Matter is a fantastic place to publish work on all aspects of soft materials, from physics to engineering to chemistry and all areas in between. Our group works broadly in soft materials and interfacial sciences, making Soft Matter a great venue for both reading and publishing. I have found the reviewers to usually be critical and provide great feedback. The journal is well-respected and a leader in the field.
What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment and what do you find most challenging about your research?
Our group works on a range of soft matter topics, and we are currently using confocal microscopy as our main tool to visualize certain processes, like non-homogeneous wetting on swollen polymer networks or capillary bridges on a particle at liquid-liquid interfaces. While there are many advantages of confocal microscopy, there are also many challenges and limitations. For example, visualizing different parts of these materials requires the use of fluorescent dyes. Hence, determining how and when to use dyes appropriately is an interesting problem in itself. Combining confocal microscopy with various in-situ measurements may offer new ways to understand soft material systems.
Can you share one piece of career-related advice or wisdom with other early career scientists?
Just remember why you are doing what you are doing. Everyone follows their own path and is motivated by different things, and it’s good to keep that in perspective. For your mental state, it’s great to find people that you can really be yourself around.
