Dr. Biswal is the Chair of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and the William M. McCardell Professor in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (CHBE) with a joint appointment in Material Science and Nanoengineering (MSNE). Biswal joined the Rice faculty in 2006. She earned her doctorate in chemical engineering from Stanford University in 2004 and received her undergraduate degree in chemical engineering at the California Institute of Technology. She completed her postdoctoral research in mechanical engineering at the University of California at Berkeley. She has been previously awarded the Young Investigator Award from the Office of Naval Research and a National Science Foundation CAREER Award. She has received the George R. Brown Award for Superior Teaching and the Provost's Award for Outstanding Doctoral Advisor at Rice University. She is an elected Fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. She has advised 35 doctoral students and published 135+ peer-reviewed publications in the area of colloidal and interfacial phenomena.
WEBSITE(S)| Biswal Research Group | Publications | Google Scholar
Research Areas
The overarching goal of Dr. Biswal's research program is understanding the fundamental physics that govern colloids, surfactants, lipids, and polymers. The interactions governing these “soft” materials are on the order of thermal motion; therefore, these materials self-assemble at mesoscopic length scales and are readily deformed by externally applied force fields. Her primary focus is understanding the chemical and physical properties and dynamics of these materials and then engineer these materials and processes to solve both fundamental and applied problems. She has four major research areas: (i) magnetically directed colloidal assemblies, (ii) multiphase fluid flow using microfluidic systems, (iii) biomimetic interfacial interactions, (iv) inorganic-organic composites for energy storage. This fundamental understanding of the surface forces and rheology governing these soft matter systems allows her group to engineer new solutions for a variety of important technological problems.
Education
2004-2006 Postdoc, Mechanical Engineering, University of California Berkeley
2004 Ph.D., Chemical Engineering, Stanford University
2001 M.S., Chemical Engineering, Stanford University
1999 B.S., Chemical Engineering, California Institute of Technology
Honors & Awards
Fellow, American Institute of Chemical Engineering (AICHE) - 2025
Provost's Award for Outstanding Doctoral Advisor, Rice U. - 2025
Fellow, American Physical Society, Division of Soft Condensed Matter - 2023