W. Benjamin Rogers
Associate Professor of Physics & Chair, Program in Biological Physics
Degree
PhD, University of Pennsylvania, 2012
Research
Ben and his research group use modern techniques from experiment, simulation, and theory to solve important problems at the interface of soft condensed matter and biological physics. Their overarching goal is to discover the physical principles that govern self-assembly and self-organization in both near-to-equilibrium and driven systems, with specific focus on understanding the dynamic pathways by which materials and living systems organize. Their research program can be divided into three interrelated research areas. The first area focuses on determining how short-range, specific interactions guide the self-assembly of nanometer- and micrometer-scale building blocks. The second area focuses on characterizing and understanding the rich phenomena exhibited by systems that are driven away from equilibrium through the consumption of chemical fuel. The third area focuses on understanding the physical interactions that govern the phase behavior and material properties of biomolecular condensates.
Group website CV and list of publications (pdf)
Sample of Recent Publications
"Geometrically programmed self-limited assembly of tubules using DNA origami colloids," D Hayakawa, TE Videbaek, DM Hall, H Fang, C Sigl, E Feigl, H Dietz, S Fraden, MF Hagan, GM Grason, WB Rogers, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 119 (43), e2207902119 (2022)
"Self-assembly of photonic crystals by controlling the nucleation and growth of DNA-coated colloids," A Hensley, WM Jacobs, WB Rogers, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 119 (1), e2114050118 (2022)
"Two-step crystallization and solid–solid transitions in binary colloidal mixtures," H Fang, MF Hagan, WB Rogers, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117 (45), 27927-27933 (2020)
"Linker-mediated phase behavior of DNA-coated colloids," J Lowensohn, B Oyarzun, G Narváez Paliza, BM Mognetti, WB Rogers, Physical Review X 9, 041054 (2019)
"Competition between self-assembly and phase separation induces re-entrant condensation of DNA liquids," O Hegde, T Li, A Sharma, M Borja, WM Jacobs, WB Rogers, arXiv preprint arXiv:2301.06134 (2023)
“Programming colloidal phase transitions with DNA strand displacement,” WB Rogers and VN Manoharan, Science, 347 639-642 (2015)