de Pablo Group

Xikai Jiang

Xikai grew up in Wuhan, China, where he graduated from Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST) with a BS in engineering mechanics in 2010. After spending more than two decades in his hometown, he went to the US and graduated from Clemson University with a PhD in mechanical engineering in 2014. Then he worked as a postdoctoral researcher in Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) from 2015 to 2016 and has continued his postdoctoral research in Professor de Pablo's group from 2016 to the present. In his spare time, he likes going into the woods and mountains to enjoy nature.

Electrostatic interaction in heterogeneous dielectric materials has important application in biological systems (e.g., charged macromolecules and synthetic structures, such as self-assembled colloidal dispersions). Solving the associated electrostatic problem is challenging and necessitates advanced numerical techniques for efficient and accurate description of dielectric polarization, distribution of induced charges, and the forces acting on materials of interests. With de Pablo Group, Xikai is developing the Continuum-Particle Simulation Software (COPSS) that houses the parallel O(N) Poisson solver to address the above challenge. COPSS can be coupled with molecular and continuum simulations to model materials influenced by electrostatic interactions at different length- and time-scales using high-performance computers. Xikai and the de Pablo Group also work on utilizing the tools built to understand a variety of physical phenomena in which electrostatic polarization plays an important role.

Structure and dynamics of hydrodynamically interacting finite-size Brownian particles in a spherical cavity: Spheres and cylinders

Li, Jiyuan, Xikai Jiang, Abhinendra Singh, Olle G. Heinonen, Juan P. Hernández-Ortiz, and Juan J. de Pablo. "Structure and dynamics of hydrodynamically interacting finite-size Brownian particles in a spherical cavity: Spheres and cylinders." The Journal of Chemical Physics 152, no. 20 (2020): 204109.

Shape induced segregation and anomalous particle transport under spherical confinement

Singh, Abhinendra, Jiyuan Li, Xikai Jiang, Juan P. Hernández-Ortiz, Heinrich M. Jaeger, and Juan J. de Pablo. "Shape induced segregation and anomalous particle transport under spherical confinement." Physics of Fluids 32, no. 5 (2020): 053307.

Evolutionary strategy for inverse charge measurements of dielectric particles

Jiang, Xikai, et al. "Evolutionary strategy for inverse charge measurements of dielectric particles." The Journal of chemical physics 148.23 (2018): 234302.

Ssages: Software suite for advanced general ensemble simulations

Sidky, Hythem, et al. "Ssages: Software suite for advanced general ensemble simulations." The Journal of chemical physics 148.4 (2018): 044104.

Parallel O(N) Stokes’ solver towards scalable Brownian dynamics of hydrodynamically interacting objects in general geometries

Zhao, Xujun, et al. "Parallel O (N) Stokes’ solver towards scalable Brownian dynamics of hydrodynamically interacting objects in general geometries." The Journal of chemical physics 146.24 (2017): 244114.

An O (N) and parallel approach to integral problems by a kernel-independent fast multipole method: Application to polarization and magnetization of interacting particles

Jiang, Xikai, et al. "An O (N) and parallel approach to integral problems by a kernel-independent fast multipole method: Application to polarization and magnetization of interacting particles." The Journal of Chemical Physics 145.6 (2016): 064307.