Michael C Sostarecz

While at Penn State, I investigated the dynamics of wormlike micellar filaments surrounded by an immiscible viscous bulk fluid.  For certain concentrations, these filaments develop a beads-on-string structure previously observed only in polymer jets and filaments surrounded by air.  By taking advantage of the longer time scales present in this experiment, we were able to quantify the evolution of individual beads and subject the filament to an external flow. 

For more, you should see Beads-on-string phenomena in wormlike micellar fluids (published in Physics of Fluids).