Sandra Marina Troian (born 1957) is an American applied physicist known for her research on

fluid dynamics In physics and engineering, fluid dynamics is a subdiscipline of fluid mechanics that describes the flow of fluids—liquids and gases. It has several subdisciplines, including '' aerodynamics'' (the study of air and other gases in motion) ...

quasicrystal A quasiperiodic crystal, or quasicrystal, is a structure that is ordered but not periodic. A quasicrystalline pattern can continuously fill all available space, but it lacks translational symmetry. While crystals, according to the classical ...

surface science Surface science is the study of physical and chemical phenomena that occur at the interface of two phases, including solid–liquid interfaces, solid– gas interfaces, solid– vacuum interfaces, and liquid– gas interfaces. It includes t ...

thin film A thin film is a layer of material ranging from fractions of a nanometer ( monolayer) to several micrometers in thickness. The controlled synthesis of materials as thin films (a process referred to as deposition) is a fundamental step in many a ...

microfluidics Microfluidics refers to the behavior, precise control, and manipulation of fluids that are geometrically constrained to a small scale (typically sub-millimeter) at which surface forces dominate volumetric forces. It is a multidisciplinary field tha ...

, and spacecraft micropropulsion. She is a professor of Applied Physics, Aeronautics, and Mechanical Engineering in the Division of Engineering and Applied Science of the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

(Caltech), and head of the Laboratory of Interfacial and Small Scale Transport in the Department of Applied Physics and Materials Science at Caltech.

Research

The Thompson and Troian slip condition, a model for nonlinear flow of liquids at liquid-solid interfaces, is named for Troian's discovery of this model with physicist Peter Thompson, which they published in ''

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans ar ...

'' in 1997. Her research has also included methods for controlling microscopic fluid droplets using a combination of chemical patterns and temperature variations on surfaces, rather than by using microfluidic pumps, published in ''Nature'' in 2000. In 2009, she found a model to explain the spontaneous growth of arrays of nanoscale pillars in polymer films placed between the surfaces of silicon wafers, allowing this phenomenon to be controlled and used for nanoscale construction.

Education and career

Troian graduated from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

in 1980. She completed her Ph.D. at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to ...

in 1987. Her dissertation, ''Mean Field Theories of Icosahedral Quasicrytals'', was supervised by

N. David Mermin Nathaniel David Mermin (; born 30 March 1935) is a solid-state physicist at Cornell University best known for the eponymous Mermin–Wagner theorem, his application of the term " boojum" to superfluidity, his textbook with Neil Ashcroft on solid ...

. After postdoctoral work at Exxon Research, and at the

Collège de France The Collège de France (), formerly known as the ''Collège Royal'' or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment ('' grand établissement'') in France. It is located in Paris ...

working with

Pierre-Gilles de Gennes Pierre-Gilles de Gennes (; 24 October 1932 – 18 May 2007) was a French physicist and the Nobel Prize laureate in physics in 1991. Education and early life He was born in Paris, France, and was home-schooled to the age of 12. By the age of ...

, she returned to Exxon as a staff scientist. She joined the faculty at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the n ...

as an assistant professor of chemical engineering in 1993, visited Caltech as a Moore Distinguished Scholar in 2004, and moved to Caltech in 2006.

Whistleblower suit

In 2014, Troian filed a

whistleblower A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person, often an employee, who reveals information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whi ...

lawsuit against the Caltech administration, claiming that they retaliated against her for reporting to the federal authorities a case of suspected espionage by an Israeli postdoctoral researcher in her laboratory. The alleged retaliation included an investigation against her for academic misconduct over an incident in which she listed her pet cat Pucci as a coauthor on a paper, following a tradition of similar pet coauthorships by other well-known physicists.

Recognition

Troian and her coauthor Anne Dussaud were the 1999 winners of the François Frenkiel Award for Fluid Mechanics of the American Physical Society (APS) Division of Fluid Dynamics. Troian was named a

Fellow of the American Physical Society The American Physical Society honors members with the designation ''Fellow'' for having made significant accomplishments to the field of physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its moti ...

in 2005, after a nomination by the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics, "for pioneering theoretical, experimental and molecular simulation studies of micro-hydrodynamic flows".

References

External links

Troian Research Group
{{DEFAULTSORT:Troian, Sandra Living people American physicists American women physicists Harvard University alumni Cornell University alumni Princeton University faculty California Institute of Technology faculty Fellows of the American Physical Society 1957 births American women academics 21st-century American women