Didcot Café Scientifique

February 21st 2023 - 7:30pm

Professor James Kwan: The humble bubble

Nature hates bubbles. So, making new bubbles takes a lot of work, and will ultimately violently collapse in on themselves. These imploding bubbles can melt nearby steel surfaces, create light, and even break down molecular bonds. By engineering bubble collapses with sound, we can tune these effects for a specific application. In this talk, I want to share how my research group is developing novel methods to take advantage of these interactions to tackle health and environmental challenges, specifically focusing on two applications: enhancing drug delivery and improving chemistry.

James Kwan is also an Associate Professor at the Department of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford and a Tutorial Fellow at Balliol College. He is part of the Physical Acoustics Lab (PacLab). His research interests include the application of mechanical, thermal, and chemical effects of ultrasound and cavitation to address challenges in personal and environmental health.