John Dutcher

Specifically, our research focuses on developing a fundamental understanding and predictive power for the physical properties of polymers, biopolymers and bacterial cells at surfaces and in thin films. We apply a broad range of surface-sensitive experimental techniques and our fundamental, physics-based strategies to develop simple models of these complex soft matter systems. We focus our approach on a wide variety of questions such as: What are the effects of an interface and changes in the environment on the conformation of biopolymers? What are the structure and mechanical properties of naturally occurring, nanostructured biomaterials? How do bacteria stick to surfaces? What is the effectiveness and mechanism of action of novel antimicrobial compounds? How do enzymes break down cellulose so that cellulosic ethanol can be made more efficiently? The answers to these questions lead to improvements in understanding as well as new applications and technologies.