Computational and theoretical soft matter

I am a Ramon y Cajal researcher at the University of Zaragoza (Spain). In my research, I use theoretical and numerical methods to study the motion of colloidal particles, polymers, bubbles, and active objects in complex environments.

Vew of Zaragoza by sunset

News 2025

7/11/2025 I am excited to attend the first Training event of the GREENS doctorate network next week. Looking forward to stimulating scientific discussions.
5/11/2025 The Juan de la Cierva fellowship call is open! Contact me if you are interested in a two-year prestigious fellowship. The application deadline is the 10th of December.
28/10/2025 New preprint out from our group! In this work, Mario Riccio uses direct numerical simulations to study the rising of bubbles in shear-thinning fluids under a periodically oscillating pressure field.
21/10/2025 The GREENS Marie Curie Doctorate Network receives the Sustainability Award at the Sustainability Days 2025 in Madrid. Congratulations to all the partners of this fantastic consortium!
9/10/2025 New paper out in Physical Review Fluids! This is a collaboration with the Università di Napoli Federico II, Charles Coulomb Labs, and the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization. We study the diffusion of colloidal ellipsoidal particles near incompressible fluid-air interfaces using simulations and experiments.
30/9/2025 Thrilled to attend the Cell Mech 2025 conference in Leuven this week! I look forward to attending great talks.
26/9/2025 Looking forward to an exciting visit to the Charles Coulomb labs in Montpellier on Monday!
26/9/2025 A big welcome to a MoJa who just joined our group as a PhD student to work on electrohydrodynamic and active colloids!
16/9/2025 I am having a great time at the "DONEV" CECAM workshop. It is fantastic to see how many scientists have been influenced by the amazing work of the late Aleks Donev. It is terrible that he left us so early.
19/6/2025 Mario Riccio presents his work at the workshop on bubble dynamics in complex media and confinements in Ascona, Switzerland.
29/4/2025 New paper out in ACS Nano Letters! This is a collaboration with the group of Prof. Simmchen from Strathclyde University where we combine experiments and simulations to understand the mechanism of motion of chemically-active particles. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.5c01567
14/4/2025 Our group is attending the AERC 2025 conference. Looking forward to attending great talks!
26/2/2025 New preprint aut in ArxiV http://arxiv.org/abs/2502.17825. This is a collaboration with Dr. Lailai Zhu from the Nationl University of Singapore (NTU) on the dynamics of colloids spinning and moving through polymer solutions.
26/2/2025 It's very nice to come back to my Alma Mater University in Naples to give a talk on the mechanics of the cell nucleus.
2/2/2025 Super excited to be part of the GREENS MSCA DN network. During the next 4 years we will be working on the locomotion of nano and microscale robots. Check the open positions for an opening. Deadline 4th of April 2025!

News 2024

The last paper of the year is finally out in Soft Matter! We study how the interplay of active motion and fluid microstructure affects the rotational (Brownian) dynamics of active Janus colloids.
New paper out in Biophysical Journal. In this paper, we explore the mechanical properties of the nucleus of the cell and how it depends on the conformation of the chromatin.
3/6/2024 I am very happy to present our lab work at the Polymer physics in cellular organization and function CECAM workshop here in Zaragoza. Looking forward to exciting science interactions.
20/5/2024 Super excited to go back to Imperial College London for the Euromech Colloquium on nonlinear dynamics at zero Reynolds numbers after 6 years since I left London. Looking forward to a fantastic meeting!
9/5/2024 Great news! Paula's paper on a finite element implementation of stochastic diffusion equations has just been accepted in the Journal of Computational Physics
19/4/2024 I had a great time at the EMBO workshop on nuclear mechano-genomics. I had the chance to meet amazing scientists who are doing fantastic work.
4/4/2024 New paper out in eLife where we study the self-organization of dense active nematic bundles in the cytoskeleton.
22/3/2024 We invite expressions of interest from candidates interested in a Marie-Curie postdoctoral fellowship in our lab. We have two research lines open: one on computational methods for mesoscale simulations and the rheology of the cell nucleus.
14/3/2024 New paper out in AdvOptMater https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adom.202303137 in collaboration with the group of Dr. Kathernine Villa from theICIQ (https://www.iciq.org/).
1/3/2024 We are happy to welcome Mario Riccio as a new PhD student in our group. Mario will study the dynamics of bubbles in associating polymer solutions.

News 2023

11/8/2023 Our paper published in Physical Review Letters https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.131.068301 has been chosen as editor's choice! Fantastic collaboration with the group of Pietro Tierno from the University of Barcelona.
20/7/2023 We have an opening for a PhD position in our lab! Send us your CV if you want to join our group
18/7/2023 Our project on bubble dynamics in polymer solutions has been funded. Stay tuned for Phd and postdoc openings!
2/7/2023 On our way to the 2nd Spanish Fluid Mechanics Conference in Barcelona.
22/8/2022 Paper out in The Journal of Chemical Physics https://pubs.aip.org/aip/jcp/article-abstract/157/8/084901/2841981/Onsager-reciprocal-relations-and-chemo-mechanical. We study how chemically-active colloids harness chemical reactions and hydrodynamics to propel close and far from equilibrium.

News 2022

13/7/2022 Paper out in the Journal of Rheology. We propose a theory for the flow of solutions of polymer that change their conformation in response to chemical-stimuli like pH or salt concentration
7/7/2022 Great news! I just received the Ramon y Cajal fellowship, a 5-years tenure track position. The Ramon y Cajal is the most prestigious fellowship awarded by the Spanish ministry of science and research.
19/5/2022 Paper accepted in the Journal of Fluid Mechanics. We investigate the retraction of thin films of liquid coated with insoluble surfactants. We find that surfactant introduce many new qualitative features that are absent in the case of clean films.
5/5/2022 New preprint out! In collaboration with Inacio Pagonabarraga, we demonstrate the Onsager reciprocal relations for chemically-active colloids and investigate the mechanism that leads to the coupling between forces and chemical reactions. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2205.02917
25/4/2022 Excited to participate to the Annual European Rheology Conference in Seville! Presenting some new results on thin-film flow with complex interfacial rheological behavior.
15/3/2022 New preprint out! In collaboration with Marino Arroyo, we propose a model for the flow of polymers that respond to chemical stimuli by changing their conformation https://arxiv.org/abs/2203.06392
11/3/2022 Super excited to go to the APS March meeting in Chicago! It is great to finally go back to an in-person meeting.

Page updated

Report abuse