Erik Nordquist

Erik Nordquist

Postdoctoral Research Fellow Alex MacKerell Group University of Maryland, Baltimore

PhD Dissertation Defense

1 minute read



I gave my final PhD dissertation defense on Monday, June 5th 2023. This was a very special day, and week, to reflect on the work I’ve done and the progress I’ve made as a scientist, and to share that progress with my family, friends, and the academic community here in Amherst. It’s been a wonderful and challenging expeirence.

I was very grateful that my parents, brother, aunt and mother-in-law were able to come share in the experience of the defense! And of course, my wife Zoe was there to support me throughout the process, from visiting UMass in March of 2018, to joining Jianhan’s group in December, through many years of hard work and success, and now completing my degree and celebrating with her.

I’m also grateful to all the people who have supported me, including my committee members Scott Auerbach, Lynmarie Thompson and Markos Katsoulakis, but especially the many friends and labmates I’ve had here in Amherst. It was a joy to celebrate this moment with them all. But it’s a bittersweet moment too, because Zoe and I will be moving to Baltimore to start our next chapter in just a few days.

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Best of Biophysical Journal 2023!

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My paper on hydrophobic dewetting, published with Jianhan and Zhiguang, was selected as one of twenty articles in the Best of Biophysical Journal 2023! This is a big honor, and feels immensely gratifying! This was essentially my first attempt to guide the direction of a research project more directly, although Jianhan of course provided many mission-critical suggestions and corrections at every phase of the project. The honor came as a surprise since none of us knew about the honor until seeing the issue in print after the BPS Annual Meeting in Philadelphia. Check it out! Read more

1st class done!

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My first class, a first-year seminar called “Order and Chaos, Reconciling atomic randomness and the human world” was a big success. Some of the final projects students designed, carried out and presented:

  • Gas permeation through a eggshell-like membrane (pictured below)
  • Irreversibility of an explosion simulation
  • Thermal equilibration and planet formation
  • Equilibration of plucked strings
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ResearchFest Presentation

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For my recent presentation at the UMass Chemistry ResearchFest, I was awarded the second-place award, a great honor and a generous monetary prize. I was among 4 student speakers selected for the highly-competitive presentations each year. One senior student per lab can be nominated. I was following in the tradition of the great Xiaorong Liu, who spoke at my first ResearchFest in 2018. Read more