Göttingen Graduate Center for Neurosciences, Biophysics, and Molecular Biosciences

Dr. Stefan Karpitschka*



  • 2002 - 2007: Studies and Diploma in Physics, University of Bayreuth, Germany (with Prof. J. Küppers)
  • 2008 - 2012: Dr. rer. nat., Physics, Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Potsdam, and University of Potsdam, Germany (with Prof. H. Möhwald)
  • 2013: Industry funded Postdoc, Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Potsdam, Germany and LAM Research AG, Villach, Austria
  • 2014 - 2016: Postdoctoral Fellow, Physics of Fluids Group, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands (with Prof. J. Snoeijer and Prof. D. Lohse)
  • 2016: Postdoctoral Fellow, Biophysics Department, Stanford University, USA (with Prof. M. Prakash)
  • since 2017: Group Leader, Department Dynamics of Complex Fluids, Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Göttingen, Germany



Major Research Interests
How do complex fluids behave at their interfaces with other phases? Classical fluid physics describe simple liquids in equilibrium quite well, but typically fail for complex liquids out of equilibrium. Examples that I am currently working on are the evaporation of sessile droplets of mixtures, which is relevant from ink-jet printing to semiconductor manufacturing; dynamical wetting of soft, flexible surfaces, and the mechanical instabilities of viscoelastic surfaces. The latter is, for instance, responsible for the distinctive morphology of mammalian brains. My approach is mainly experimental, involving optical imaging, velocimetry, mechanical testing, etc. The nature of the problems I am working on stimulated many past and ongoing collaborations with theoreticians.

Homepage Department/Research Group
http://www.ds.mpg.de/dcf/karpitschka-gruppe


Selected Recent Publications


  • van Gorcum M, Andreotti B, Snoeijer JH, Karpitschka S (2018) Dynamic solid surface tension causes droplet pinning and depinning. Physical Review Letters 121, 208003

  • Karpitschka S, Eggers J, Pandey A, Snoeijer JH (2017) Cusp-shaped elastic creases and furrows. Physical Review Letters 119 (19), 198001

  • Karpitschka S, Pandey A, Lubbers LA, Weijs HJ, Botto L, Das S, Andreotti B, Snoeijer JH (2016) Liquid drops attract or repel by the inverted Cheerios effect. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 113 (27), pp. 7403 - 7407

  • Karpitschka S, van Wijngaarden L, Snoeijer JH (2016) Surface tension regularizes the crack singularity of adhesion. Soft Matter 12, pp. 4463 - 4471

  • Karpitschka S, Das S, van Gorcum M, Perrin H, Andreotti B, Snoeijer JH (2015) Droplets move over viscoelastic substrates by surfing a ridge. Nature Communications 6, 7891