Dr. Joseph Barakat is a Lead Engineer at Veryst Engineering. He is a chemical engineer by training (B.S. Columbia; M.S., Ph.D. Stanford) and has technical expertise in computational fluid dynamics, complex fluids, and transport phenomena. Dr. Barakat has extensive modeling experience in microfluidic and electrokinetic flows, rheology of non-Newtonian fluids (e.g., suspensions, protein solutions, and polymer melts), chemical and electrochemical reactions, thin-film lubrication, capillarity and wetting phenomena, heat and mass transfer, particle population dynamics, and fluid-structure interaction. Dr. Barakat applies computer simulations and advanced mathematical methods to solve engineering problems for clients across industries, spanning medical devices, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, consumer products, energy storage systems, and additive manufacturing processes.
Prior to joining Veryst, Dr. Barakat was an NIH Ruth Kirschstein Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His postdoctoral research focused on investigating physical mechanisms of and remediation strategies for lung surfactant inactivation in acute respiratory distress syndrome. Dr. Barakat was previously awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship for his doctoral research on vesicle transport in microfluidic devices. He has published over a dozen peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals and regularly presents his work at national conferences. In 2021, he was named an MRSEC (Materials Research Science & Engineering Centers) Rising Star in Soft and Biological Matter by the University of Chicago.
Pronouns: He/Him
Education
Ph.D., Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, 2018
M.S., Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, 2014
B.S., Chemical Engineering, Columbia University, 2012
Selected Publications
"Surface Topography Induces and Orients Nematic Swarms of Active Filaments: Considerations for Lab-On-A-Chip Devices," ACS Applied Nano Materials, Vol. 7, No. 10, pp. 12142-12152, 2024 (with K. J. Modica, L. Lu, S. Anujarerat, K. H. Choi, and S. C. Takatori)
"Curvature and shape relaxation in surface-viscous domains," Physical Review Fluids, Vol. 8, EID 054001, 2023 (with T. M. Squires)
"Enhanced dispersion in an oscillating array of harmonic traps," Physical Review E, Vol. 107, No. 1, EID 014601, 2023 (with S. C. Takatori).
"Spontaneous evolution of equilibrium morphology in phospholipid-cholesterol monolayers," Science Advances, Vol. 8, No. 14, EID eabl9152, 2022 (with C. Valtierrez-Gaytan, M. Kohler, K. Kieu, B. L. Stottrup, and J. A. Zasadzinski).
"Curvature-mediated forces on elastic inclusions in fluid interfaces," Langmuir, Vol. 38, No. 3, pp. 1099-1105, 2022 (with T. M. Squires).
"Surface-tension effects in oscillatory squeeze flow rheometry," Physics of Fluids, Vol. 33, No. 12, EID 122112, 2021 (with Z. Hinton, N. J. Alvarez, and T. W. Walker).
"Capillary force on an 'inert' colloid: A physical analogy to dielectrophoresis," Soft Matter, Vol. 17, No. 12, pp. 3417-3442, 2021 (with T. M. Squires).
"Shape morphology of dipolar domains in planar and spherical monolayers," The Journal of Chemical Physics, Vol. 152, No. 23, EID 234701, 2020 (with T. M. Squires).
"Evaporation-driven solutocapillary flow of thin liquid films over curved substrates," Physical Review Fluids, Vol. 4, No. 3, EID 034002, 2019 (with M. Rodriguez-Hakim, X. Shi, E. S. G. Shaqfeh, and G. G. Fuller).
"Pressure-driven flow of a vesicle through a square microchannel," Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Vol. 861, pp. 447-483, 2019 (with S. M. Ahmmed, S. A. Vanapalli, and E. S. G. Shaqfeh).
"Stokes flow of vesicles in a circular tube," Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Vol. 851, pp. 606-635, 2018 (with E. S. G. Shaqfeh)
"The steady motion of a closely fitting vesicle in a tube," Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Vol. 835, pp. 721-761, 2018 (with E. S. G. Shaqfeh)
"Multiplexed fluid flow device to study cellular response to tunable shear stress gradients," Annals of Biomedical Engineering, Vol. 44, pp. 2261-2272, 2016 (with M. A. Ostrowski, E. Y. Huang, V. N Surya, C. Poplawski, G. L. Lin, G. G. Fuller, and A. R. Dunn)
"Aqueous-phase secondary organic aerosol and organosulfate formation in atmospheric aerosols: a modeling study," Environmental Science & Technology, Vol. 46, No. 15, pp. 8075-8081, 2012 (with V. F. McNeill, J. L. Woo, D. D. Kim, A. N. Schwier, N. J. Wannell, and A. J. Sumner)
Contributed Presentations
"Computational fluid dynamics investigation of lyophilized drug product reconstitution within dual-chamber autoinjectors," PDA Universe of Pre-filled Syringes and Injection Devices Conference, Phoenix, AZ, October 2024 (with M. J. Hancock).
"Multiphysics simulation of battery cells and packs for electric vehicles," COMSOL Conference, Boston, MA, October 2024 (with M. S. Oliver and M. J. Hancock).
"Topography-driven control of active nematic swarms," AIChE 2022 Annual Meeting, Phoenix, AZ, November 2022 (with K. J. Modica and S. C. Takatori).
"Capillary force on an 'inert' colloid: A physical analogy to dielectrophoresis," SoCal Fluids XV Symposium, Los Angeles, CA, April 2022 (with T. M. Squires).
"Topography-driven control of active nematic swarms," 19th U.S. National Congress on Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (USNC/TAM 2022), Austin, TX, June 2022 (with S. C. Takatori).
"Domain shape morphologies in monolayer films of lung surfactant,” ACS Fall 2022 Meeting, Chicago, IL, August 2022 (with C. Valtierrez-Gaytan, B. Stottrup, J. A. Zasadzinski, and T. M. Squires).
"Capillary force on an 'inert' colloid: A physical analogy to dielectrophoresis," 95th ACS Colloid & Surface Science Symposium, Virtual Seminar, June 2021 (with T. M. Squires).
"Gaussian-curvature-mediated interactions of elastic inclusions in fluid membranes," AIChE 2021 Annual Meeting, Boston, MA, November 2021 (with T. M. Squires).
"Domain shape morphologies in monolayer films: Interplay among line tension, dipolar repulsions, and surface curvature," AIChE 2021 Annual Meeting, Boston, MA, November 2021 (with C. Valtierrez-Gaytan, B. Stottrup, J. A. Zasadzinski, and T. M. Squires).
"Surface-tension effects in oscillatory squeeze-flow rheometry," AIChE 2020 Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, November 2020 (with Z. R. Hinton, N. J. Alvarez, and T. W. Walker).
"Shape morphology of dipolar domains in planar and spherical monolayers," AIChE 2020 Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, November 2020 (with T. M. Squires).
"Tuning the microstructure of phospholipid monolayers using substrate curvature," APS March Meeting (canceled due to COVID-19 Pandemic), Denver, CO, March 2020 (with T. M. Squires).
"Tuning the microstructure of phospholipid monolayers using substrate curvature," Gordon Research Seminar: Colloidal, Macromolecular and Polyelectrolyte Solutions, Ventura, CA, February 2020 (with T. M. Squires).
"Modeling film drainage of lubricants as a predictor of foam stability," 91st ACS Colloid & Surface Science Symposium, New York, NY, July 2017 (with X. Shi, E. S. G. Shaqfeh, E. L. Garcia, and A. Kar).
"Squeezing of vesicles through narrow tubes," 88th Annual Meeting of the Society of Rheology, Tampa, FL, February 2017 (with E. S. G. Shaqfeh).
"The motion of a train of vesicles in channel flow," 70th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics, Denver, CO, November 2017 (with E. S. G. Shaqfeh).
"The steady motion of a train of vesicles in a cylindrical channel of arbitrary cross section," AIChE 2017 Annual Meeting, Minneapolis, MN, October 2017 (with E. S. G. Shaqfeh).
"Theory for thin-film evolution between a sphere and a planar free surface," AIChE 2016 Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, November 2016 (with J. M. Frostad, M. R. Hakim, G. G. Fuller, and E. S. G. Shaqfeh).
"The Bretherton problem for a vesicle," 69th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics, Portland, OR, November 2016 (with A. P. Spann and E. S. G. Shaqfeh).
"The motion of a closely fitting vesicle in a tube," 24th International Congress of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, Montréal, Québec, Canada, August 2016 (with A. P. Spann and E. S. G. Shaqfeh).
"The motion of a tightly fitting vesicle in a tube," AIChE 2015 Annual Meeting, Salt Lake City, UT, November 2015 (with A. P. Spann and E. S. G. Shaqfeh).
"Ultrafine Particle Emissions from Waste Transportation Averted as a Result of Waste-to-Energy: A Case Study of the New York Metropolitan Area," Waste-to-Energy Research & Technology 2010 Bi-Annual Meeting, New York, NY, October 2010 (with V. F. McNeill).