{"id":10468,"date":"2026-02-02T10:32:44","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T15:32:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/?p=10468"},"modified":"2026-02-20T14:44:58","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T19:44:58","slug":"plummer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/2026\/02\/02\/plummer\/","title":{"rendered":"Hydrogel Instabilities (RET)"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Mentors<\/h3>\n\n\t<ul class=\"profile-listing profile-format-advanced\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\n<li class=\"profile-item profile-item-advanced has-title post-10461 profile type-profile status-publish hentry affiliation-faculty\">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/profile\/abigail-plummer\/\" class=\"profile-link profile-link-advanced\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<figure class=\"profile-photo profile-photo-advanced\"><img width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"\/photonics-programs\/files\/2026\/02\/Abby_Plummer-600x600-1-300x300.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure>\t\t\t\t<h6 class=\"profile-name profile-name-advanced\">Abigail Plummer*<\/h6>\n\t\t<p class=\"profile-title profile-title-advanced\">Assistant Professor (ME, MSE)<\/p>\t<\/a>\n\n\t\n<\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\n<li class=\"profile-item profile-item-advanced has-title post-10649 profile type-profile status-publish hentry affiliation-graduate-student\">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/profile\/rishabh\/\" class=\"profile-link profile-link-advanced\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<figure class=\"profile-photo profile-photo-advanced\"><img width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"\/photonics-programs\/files\/2026\/02\/Rishabh-1384x1536-1-300x300.jpeg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure>\t\t\t\t<h6 class=\"profile-name profile-name-advanced\">Rishabh *<\/h6>\n\t\t<p class=\"profile-title profile-title-advanced\">PhD Candidate<\/p>\t<\/a>\n\n\t\n<\/li>\n\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\t\n<h3><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Project Description<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Understanding the factors that either stimulate or hinder growth and expansion is relevant to many fields, including medicine, morphogenesis, and agriculture. We are particularly interested in studying how expanding or growing bodies respond to the presence of obstacles. Recently, we have focused on how hydrogels can be used as a model system to explore how stresses develop. In this project, the researcher will fabricate superabsorbent hydrogels and search for novel mechanical instabilities.<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"><div class=\"bu_collapsible_container \" aria-live=\"polite\" data-customize-animation=\"false\"><h3 class=\"bu_collapsible\" aria-expanded=\"false\"tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\">Research Goals<\/h3><div class=\"bu_collapsible_section\" style=\"display: none;\"><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>Identify and characterize novel nonlinear hydrogel instabilities<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>Understand how instabilities relate to both material properties and confining geometry<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>Continue to develop hydrogels as a platform for probing large deformation growth and swelling<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"><div class=\"bu_collapsible_container \" aria-live=\"polite\" data-customize-animation=\"false\"><h3 class=\"bu_collapsible\" aria-expanded=\"false\"tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\">Learning Goals<\/h3><div class=\"bu_collapsible_section\" style=\"display: none;\"><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>Gain hands-on experience in polymer gel synthesis and characterization<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>Learn experimental design and quantitative imaging <\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Timeline<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"color: #003366;\"><strong>Weeks 1-2:<\/strong><\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> Learn the basics of synthesizing hydrogels and how to vary their mechanical properties.<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #003366;\"><strong>Weeks 2-4:<\/strong><\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0Fabricate obstacles and learn basics of image analysis.<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #003366;\"><strong>Weeks 4-6:<\/strong><\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0 Perform swelling experiments to search for novel instabilities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mentors Project Description Understanding the factors that either stimulate or hinder growth and expansion is relevant to many fields, including medicine, morphogenesis, and agriculture. We are particularly interested in studying how expanding or growing bodies respond to the presence of obstacles. Recently, we have focused on how hydrogels can be used as a model system [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19768,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[118],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10468"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19768"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10468"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10719,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10468\/revisions\/10719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}