Faculty - Roman Stocker

Roman Stocker's photo

Roman Stocker

Associate Professor

MIT
Parsons Laboratory
Room 48-335
15 Vassar Street
Cambridge, MA, 02139

Telephone: 617.253.3726 e-mail: romans@mit.edu Website: http://web.mit.edu/romanstocker/

View Publications

Education

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

Research Interests

The fluid mechanics and ecology of microorganisms, particularly in aquatic and marine environments. Microfluidics applied to microbial ecology. Life at low Reynolds number. Chemotaxis, gyrotaxis. Particle settling in stratified fluids.

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.

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. 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.
  3. Seymour J.R., Marcos and Stocker R., 2008, Resource patch formation and exploitation throughout the marine microbial food web, Am. Nat., 173, E15-E29.
  4. Ahmed T. and Stocker R., 2008, Experimental verification of the behavioral foundation of bacterial transport parameters using microfluidics, Biophys. J., 95, 4481-4493.
  5. Seymour J.R., Ahmed T., Marcos and Stocker R., 2008, A microfluidic chemotaxis assay to study microbial behaviour in diffusing nutrient patches, Limnol. Oceanogr.: Methods, 6, 477-488.
  6. Stocker R. and Bush J.W.M., 2007, Spontaneous oscillations of a sessile lens, J. Fluid Mech., 583, 465-75.