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Raashiq Ishraaq, a Ph.D. candidate in mechanical engineering at the University of Maryland (UMD), has received multiple honors this year for his work, including being selected as a finalist for the American Physical Society (APS) Division of Soft Matter Emerging Soft Matter Excellence Award.
He presented his finalist talk, “Atomistics Explorations of Fundamental Features of Cationic Polyelectrolyte Brushes through Molecular Simulations and Machine learning” in March at the APS Global Physics Summit in Anaheim, California.
“This recognition from the APS is a major achievement by Raashiq,” said his advisor, Professor Siddhartha Das. “The award is highly competitive and given to the very best Ph.D. students worldwide working in the soft matter.”
In addition, Ishraaq has been awarded the Ann Wylie Dissertation Fellowship, which is given by the UMD Graduate School and provides a full semester’s worth of support to doctoral candidates in the latter stages of writing their dissertations.
His research concerns densely grafted cationic brushes, which are a type of polyelectrolyte brush–that is, a polymer strand that carries charged particles. In the case of cationic brushes,the charge is positive.
Using all-atom molecular dynamics simulations and machine learning techniques, he explores the water microstructure, ion dynamics, and hydration behavior of a very commonly used cationic brush, poly(2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl trimethylammonium chloride).
“Raashiq’s work is unique as it enables exploring atomic-level details of a highly complicated system, such as a polyelectrolyte chain,” said his advisor, Professor Das. “For example, Raashiq’s papers provide answers to questions such as how a single water molecule changes structure depending on whether it is near or far from a polyelectrolyte chain.”
“At the same time, his work applies machine learning to unravel information that is beyond the capabilities of even such atomic level explorations.”
Applications include water filtration,sanitation, and drug delivery.
“Suppose I have a drug inside a nanoparticle, and I want this nanoparticle to interact with a specific protein, for example in treating a specific tumor inside your body. I can design a polyelectrolyte coat–that is, a nanoparticle with certain polyelectrolytes–that will interact in that way,” Ishraaq explained.
His research has already been published in numerous world-leading journals, which include Macromolecules, The Journal of Physical Chemistry B, and Chemical Communications.
Recent achievements also include a paper on nanofluidics that was published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters. That work examined phenomena that occur when two distinct types of fluid, such as oil and water, are mixed and the interface between them is manipulated in some way, for example by being heated.
April 17, 2025
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