Faculty - Roman Stocker

Roman Stocker's photo

Roman Stocker

Associate Professor

MIT
Parsons Laboratory
Room 48-213
15 Vassar Street
Cambridge, MA, 02139

Telephone: 617.253.3726 Email: romans@mit.edu Research Website: http://romanstocker.mit.edu/

View Publications

Education

  • B.S. Civil Engineering, University of Padova
  • M.S. Civil Engineering, University of Padova
  • Ph.D. University of Padova

Research Interests

My research focuses on the physical ecology of microorganisms and on microscale transport phenomena. With specific expertise in fluid mechanics, I use carefully controlled microfluidic experiments to understand how physical forces and chemical signals shape the behavior of microorganisms, particuarly in the ocean. My vision is that understanding microscale biophysical mechanisms is paramount to predicting ecosystem-level dynamics.

Teaching Interests

  • The physical ecology and fluid mechanics of microorganisms.
  • Life at low Reynolds numbers. Continuum dynamics and mathematical modeling.
  • Engineering Mechanics II: Fluid mechanics for Civil and Environmental Engineers.

Awards and Honors

1998

Paolo Sarpi gold medal for the best School of Engineering student, University of Padova
1997 Aldo Gini scholarship for undergraduate studies at U. Karlsruhe, Germany
1999 Guglielmo Marin travel award for graduate research at U. Western Australia
2000 Aldo Gini scholarship for graduate research at U. Western Australia
2005–2007 Winslow Career Development Chair
2007–2012 NSF CAREER grant (Biological Oceanography)
2007–2009 Doherty Professorship of Ocean Utilization
2010 ASLO Lindeman Award for outstanding paper in aquatic sciences under age 35
2011 Milton Van Dyke Award from Division of Fluid Dynamics, American Physical Society
2012 Maseeh Award for Teaching, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2013-2018 Marine Microbial Initiative Investigator Award, Moore Foundation

Selected Publications

  1. Durham W., Kessler J.O. and Stocker R., 2009, "Disruption of motility by shear triggers formation of thin phytoplankton layers", Science, 323, 1067-1070.
  2. Reis P.M., Jung W., Aristoff J.M. and Stocker R., 2010, "How cats lap: water uptake by Felis catus", Science, 330, 1231-1234. (all authors equal in status)
  3. Seymour J.R., Simo' R., Ahmed T. and Stocker R., 2010, "Chemoattraction to dimethylsulfoniopropionate throughout the marine microbial food web", Science, 329, 342-345.
  4. Stocker R. and Durham W.M., 2009, "Tumbling for stealth?”, Science, 325, 400-402.
  5. Marcos, Seymour J.R., Luhar M., Durham W.M., Mitchell J.G., Macke A. and Stocker R., 2011, "Microbial alignment in flow changes ocean light climate", PNAS, 108(10), 3860-3864.
  6. Stocker R., 2011, "Reverse and flick: Hybrid locomotion in bacteria", PNAS, 108(7), 2635-2636.
  7. Sutherland K.R., Madin L.P. and Stocker R., 2010, “Filtration of submicrometer particles by pelagic tunicates”, PNAS, 107(34), 15129-15134.
  8. Kindler K., Khalili A. and Stocker R., 2010, "Diffusion–limited retention of porous particles at density interfaces", PNAS, 107(51), 22163–22168.
  9. Stocker R., Seymour J.R., Samadani A., Hunt D.E. and Polz M., 2008, "Rapid chemotactic response enables marine bacteria to exploit ephemeral microscale nutrient patches", PNAS, 105(11), 4209-4214.
  10. Ahmed T., Shimizu T.S. and Stocker R., 2010, “Bacterial chemotaxis in linear and nonlinear steady microfluidic gradients”, Nano Letters, 10, 3379-3385.
  11. Marcos, Fu H., Powers T. and Stocker R., 2009, “Separation of microscale objects by flow”, Phys. Rev. Lett., 102, 158103.
  12. Ardekani, A.M. and Stocker R., 2010, “Stratlets: low Reynolds number point-force solutions in a stratified fluid”, Phys. Rev. Lett., 105, 084502.
  13. Seymour J.R., Marcos and Stocker R., 2008, "Resource patch formation and exploitation throughout the marine microbial food web", Am. Nat., 173, E15-E29.
  14. Ahmed T. and Stocker R., 2008, "Experimental verification of the behavioral foundation of bacterial transport parameters using microfluidics", Biophys. J., 95, 4481-4493.