Graduate Student - Ph.D.

Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics

Northwestern University (Evanston, IL)

Stephen H. Davis, Michael J Miksis

Subdiffusion in glassy materials and applications.

Nature has demonstrated a promising new approach for the preservation of biospecimens. Yeasts, nematodes, and some other microorganisms exploit the glass-forming property of highly-concentrated aqueous solutions of certain sugars to survive extreme ambient conditions, including drought and severe cold. As an applied mathematician, my role in this investigation is to develop a mathematical model for how these biological glasses form and propagate through a tissue. The problem is mathematically complex because the glassy phase exhibits subdiffusive behavior and its propagation through a medium is modeled as a free-boundary problem.