Kyle Bishop

PROFESSOR OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

809 S.W. Mudd

Tel(212) 854-6955
Fax(212) 854-3054

Kyle Bishop and his research team are developing colloidal machines, in which micro- and nanoscale components assemble spontaneously to perform dynamic functions inspired by living systems. 

Research Interests

colloidal materials & machines, active soft matter, self-assembly, microfluidics

The future impact of nanotechnology will depend less on the structures we can fabricate and more on the functions we can engineer. Despite myriad methods for the synthesis of “small” structures, we struggle to direct and control the processes required for the realization of functional systems at colloidal scales (nanometers to microns). By contrast, living organisms harness flows of matter and energy to perform remarkable feats of engineering: they assemble dynamic multiscale materials; they capture and convert energy into complex motions; they regulate tangled networks of chemical reactions; they replicate their structures and processes in exponential fashion. Guided by this inspiration, the team’s research seeks to characterize and control matter outside of thermodynamic equilibrium to enable new materials and technologies with capabilities that rival those of living organisms.

The team’s research focuses on the structure and dynamics of particulate matter (nanocrystals, droplets, etc.) dispersed in liquids with sizes ranging from few nanometers to tens of microns. This scale remains a challenging frontier in material science – often beyond the limits of both top-down fabrication strategies and bottom-up chemical approaches. Materials at these scales offer unique mechanical, electronic, and magnetic properties required by emerging applications in energy capture and storage, photonics, and electronics. The challenge is organizing these materials into functional systems best exemplified by the structural and dynamical complexity of living cells. Such complexity cannot be achieved at equilibrium but instead requires flows of matter and energy to enable smart materials capable of actuating, sensing, adapting, self-repairing, and even self-replicating. The group uses external stimuli (e.g., electric fields, chemical reactions, shear forces) to drive colloidal systems away from equilibrium in order (i) to understand dynamic (dissipative) self-assembly and (ii) to engineer the spontaneous organization of functional materials. Building on their expertise in colloidal interactions, self-assembly, and non-equilibrium phenomena, they integrate experiment with theory and simulation to unlock the mysteries of matter far from equilibrium and realize the full potential of nanotechnology.

Research Experience

  • Postdoctoral fellow, Harvard, 2009-2010

Professional Experience

  • Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, Columbia University, 2021–
  • Associate Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, Columbia University, 2016–2020
  • Dorothy Quiggle Career Development Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, 2015–2016
  • Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, 2010–2015

Professional Affiliations

  • American Institute of Chemical Engineers
  • American Chemical Society

Honors & Awards

  • NSF CAREER Award, 2013
  • 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award, 2012

Selected Publications

  • Y. Dou, C.A. Cartier, W. Fei, S. Pandey, S. Razavi, I. Kretzschmar, K.J.M. Bishop, Directed motion of metallodielectric particles by contact charge electrophoresis. Langmuir 32, 13167−13173 (2016)
  • M. Kowalik, K.J.M. Bishop, Ratcheted Electrophoresis of Brownian Particles. Appl. Phys. Lett. 108, 203103 (2016)
  • L. Cademartiri, K.J.M. Bishop, Programmable self-assembly. Nature Mater. 14, 2-9 (2015)
  • S. Sabrina, M. Spellings, S.C. Glotzer, K.J.M. Bishop, Coarsening dynamics of binary liquids with active rotation. Soft Matter 11, 8409-8416 (2015)
  • S.H.R. Shin, H.-Y. Lee, K.J.M. Bishop, Amphiphilic nanoparticles control the growth and stability of lipid bilayers with open edges. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 54, 10816–10820 (2015)
  • A.M. Drews, C.A. Cartier, K.J.M. Bishop, Contact Charge Electrophoresis: Experiment and Theory. Langmuir 31, 3808–3814 (2015)
  • H.Y. Lee, S.H.R. Shin, A.M. Drews, A.M. Chirsan, S.A. Lewis, K.J.M. Bishop, Self-assembly of nanoparticle amphiphiles with adaptive surface chemistry. ACS Nano 8, 9979–9987 (2014)
  • C.A. Cartier, A.M. Drews, K.J.M. Bishop, Microfluidic mixing of nonpolar liquids by contact charge electrophoresis. Lab Chip 14, 4230-4236 (2014)
  • A.M. Drews, H.Y. Lee, K.J.M. Bishop, Ratcheted electrophoresis for rapid particle transport. Lab Chip 13, 4295-4298 (2013)
  • M. Kowalik, C.M. Gothard, A.M. Drews, N.A. Gothard, B.A. Grzybowski, K.J.M. Bishop, Parallel optimization of synthetic pathways within the network of organic chemistry. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 51, 7928-7932 (2012)