Vivek Prakash, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Physics, College of Arts & Sciences
Prof. Vivek N. Prakash is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics, and a secondary faculty in the Departments of Biology, and Marine Biology & Ecology (RSMAS) at the University of Miami. His research at the interface of Physics and Biology is driven by a sense of curiosity, fascination and discovery. This research exemplifies the promise of leveraging physics to unearth the general organizing principles underlying fundamental form-function relationships in organismal biology.
Prof. Prakash's research program is focused on two major themes: (1) Tissue Mechanics, and (2) Biological Fluid Mechanics. In his past research, he discovered that physiological tissue fracture and healing dynamics govern extreme plastic shape changes in the early divergent animal Trichoplax adhaerens (Prakash et al. Nature Physics, 2021). In starfish larvae, he demonstrated how swimming-feeding tradeoffs are dictated by hydrodynamics (Gilpin et al. Nature Physics, 2017). This work has led to several awards including the Nikon Small World in Motion competition, APS-DFD Milton van Dyke award, NSF ‘Vizzies’ challenge, with wide media coverage by New York Times, Nature, Scientific American, Popular Science and others.
Prof. Prakash carried out Postdoctoral research in Biomechanics at Stanford University. He received his Ph.D. in Applied Physics from the University of Twente, The Netherlands. He obtained his master’s and undergraduate degrees in Engineering Mechanics and Mechanical Engineering in India. For more information, please visit the lab website: www.marinebiophysics.org
