Homepage of Josué Sznitman

Dr. Josué Sznitman

Council of Science & Technology Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow 

Lecturer in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering

Dept. Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering

Princeton University

sznitman@princeton.edu

Phone: +1 609 258 5205

 

Publications · Resume (pdf) ·

Background:

I am a Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow appointed by the Princeton Council of Science & Technology. I am a mechanical engineer whose main focus lies in fluid dynamics. My research looks at flow phenomena on small scales (i.e. low Reynolds number flows; microfluidics). I am particularly interested in problems related to biological flows and physiology.

Biofluid phenomena may be broadly defined as the description of fluid interactions with living organisms. Indeed, humans, animals and other organisms exist in a fluid or are composed of fluid. This field may be loosely categorized into two broad branches: i) physiological and ii) zoological fluid mechanics. Physiological flows are generally associated with the study of internal flows inside living organisms. For example, traditional topics include respiratory airflows in the lung and blood flows in arteries and capillaries. In contrast, zoological fluid mechanics concentrates on flows external to living bodies, such as in swimming and flying. Understanding the physical mechanisms governing internal and external biofluid flows is both exciting and relevant from a fundamental and applied perspective.

Education:

• Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering, ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), 2007
• M.Sc. Mechanical Engineering, ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), 2003
• B.Sc. Mechanical Engineering, MIT, 2002

Professional Experience:

• 2009 - present: Lecturer / Research Associate
  Dept. Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University
• 2008 - 2009: Postdoctoral Research Fellow
  Dept. Mechanical Engineering & Applied Mechanics, University of Pennsylvania
• 2003 - 2007: Teaching & Research Assistant
  Institute of Fluid Dynamics, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich

Teaching Interests

At Princeton, my mentor is Professor Lex Smits. Together, we will be lecturing in the Fall of 2009 a new undergraduate course specialized on biological flows entitled ''The Flow of Life: an Introduction to Biological Fluid Mechanics" (MAE 234).

For those of you interested in fluid dynamics, a great educational resource is eFluids.

Research Interests:

• Biofluid mechanics: physiological flows, pulmonary fluid dynamics
• Low Reynolds flows: swimming phenomena, microfluidics
• Experimental flow visualization: particle image velocimetry (PIV)

Here is an incomplete list of labs and people I collaborate with or share common research interests:

• Prof. Paulo E. Arratia (Penn Complex Fluids Lab) at the Dept. of Mechanical Engineering & Applied Mechanics, University of Pennsylvania.
• Prof. Todd Lamitina (Lamitina Lab) at the Dept. of Physiology, School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania.
• Prof. Thomas Roesgen at the Institute of Fluid Dynamics, ETH Zurich.
• Raphael Sznitman at the Dept. of Computer Science, Johns Hopkins University.
• Prof. John Dabiri (Biological Propulsion Laboratory) at Caltech.
• Prof. George Lauder (Lauder Laboratory) at Harvard University.
• Prof. Peter Gehr and Dr. Johannes Schittny at the Institute of Anatomy at the University of Bern.
• Prof. William Ryu (Ryu Lab) at the University of Toronto.