Tyler Engstrom

Contact Information

Education

Ph.D. Physics, Penn State University (2015)

B.S. Metallurgical Engineering, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (2005)

Professional/Academic Experience

Assistant Professor, University of Northern Colorado (2021-)
Editorial Board, American Journal of Physics (2021-)
Associate Editor, American Journal of Physics (2020-2021)
Product Development Scientist, MiTeGen (2020-2021)
Visiting Assistant Professor, Hobart and William Smith Colleges (2019 & 2016)
Postdoctoral Researcher, Syracuse University (2016-2018)

Research/Areas of Interest

I am a soft matter and biological physicist with professional experiences spanning theoretical, computational, and experimental projects in both industry and academia. A major theme of my recent work is mechanical instabilities in soft and/or slender structures. These structures might be made of living tissues. For example, the folds of your brain and the crypts and villi in your intestines were created when two adjacent tissue layers grew at different rates, setting up a wrinkling instability. The foveal pit in the macula region of your eye – my current fascination – appears to form by a related mechanism. In studying these biomechanical phenomena, I collaborate with (and learn a lot from) biologists at UNC and elsewhere. For another example of this work, consider thin elastic filaments like carbon nanotubes or the microtubules in your cells, that can vibrate and twist and buckle. The mathematics describing all this is remarkably like the mathematics of quantum mechanics in one dimension, and so I am interested in trying to learn new things about classical elastic systems from analogous quantum mechanical systems, and vice versa. In addition to mechanical instabilities, I also have a general interest in cell, tissue, and solid mechanics. 

Publications/Creative Works

Journal Articles:

Dynamics of certain Euler-Bernoulli rods and rings from a minimal coupling quantum isomorphism, T. A. Engstrom, Phys. Rev. E 107, 065005 (2023)

High-resolution single-particle cryo-EM of samples vitrified in boiling nitrogen, T. A. Engstrom, J. A. Clinger, K. A. Spoth, O. B. Clarke, D. S. Closs, R. Jayne, B. A. Apker, and R. E. Thorne, IUCrJ 8, 1-11 (2021)

The quantum character of buckling instabilities in thin rods, T. A. Engstrom, Am. J. Phys. 88, 845 (2020)

Loops versus lines and the compression stiffening of cells, M. C. Gandikota, K. Pogoda, A. van Oosten, T. A. Engstrom, A. E. Patteson, P. A. Janmey, & J. M. Schwarz, Soft Matter 16, 4389 (2020)

Compression stiffening in biological tissues: On the possibility of classic elasticity origins, T. A. Engstrom, K. Pogoda, K. Cruz, P. A. Janmey, & J. M. Schwarz, Phys. Rev. E 99, 052413 (2019)

Cerebellar folding is initiated by mechanical constraints on a fluid-like layer without a cellular pre-pattern, A. K. Lawton, T. A. Engstrom, D. Rohrbach, M. Omura, D. H. Turnbull, J. Mamou, Teng Zhang, J. M. Schwarz, & A. L. Joyner, eLife 8, e45019 (2019)

Buckling without bending: a new paradigm in morphogenesis, T. A. Engstrom, Teng Zhang, A. K. Lawton, A. L. Joyner, & J. M. Schwarz, Phys. Rev. X 8, 041053 (2018)

Surface creasing of soft elastic continua as a Kosterlitz-Thouless transition, T. A. Engstrom & J. M. Schwarz, Europhys. Lett. 118, 56005 (2017)

Crystal chemistry of three-component white dwarfs and neutron star crusts: phase stability, phase stratification and physical properties, T. A. Engstrom, N. C. Yoder, & V. H. Crespi, Astrophys. J. 818:183 (2016)

Microphysics of neutron star outer envelopes in the periodized, magnetic Thomas-Fermi model, T. A. Engstrom, V. H. Crespi, B. J. Owen, J. Brannick, & Xiaozhe Hu, arXiv:1409.3299 (2015)

A computer-controlled classroom model of an atomic force microscope, T. A. Engstrom, M. M. Johnson, P. C. Eklund, & T. J. Russin, Phys. Teach. 53 (2015)

Probing phase coherence in solid helium using torsional oscillators of different path lengths, D. Y. Kim, J. T. West, T. A. Engstrom, N. Mulders, & M. H. W. Chan, Phys. Rev. B 85, 024533 (2012)

Effects of friction stir welding on mechanical properties of the cast aluminum alloys A319 and A356, M. L. Santella, T. A. Engstrom, D. Storjohann, & T.-Y. Pan, Scr. Mater. 53, 2 (2005)

Patents:

Sample Supports for cryo-electron microscopy, Inventors: Robert Thorne, Tyler Engstrom, & Richard Jayne, European Patent Office No. EP4348694A1 published April 10, 2024.

Honors and Awards

National Eye Institute of the National Institutes of Health Award Number R15EY035473, Developing new biophysical models of choroid fissure closure in zebrafish and foveal pit formation across species, T. A. Engstrom & A. E. James, co-PIs (2024)

College of Natural and Health Sciences’ Grant-writing Incentive Program (GRIP) Awards, T. A. Engstrom (2023, 2024)

University of Northern Colorado New Project Proposal grant: Morphogenesis of the Retinal Fovea and Pseudo-fovea, T. A. Engstrom, PI (2021)