Leif Ristroph

About

Leif Ristroph is an Associate Professor of Mathematics at New York University. His research focuses on applied mathematics, with recent work in the Applied Mathematics Laboratory where he and his team have conducted studies on the factors that cause icebergs to capsize. His team’s research, published in Physical Review Fluids, offers insights into how melting occurs primarily along the wetted surface of the ice below the waterline, leading to changes in the iceberg's stability and eventual rotation. This work contributes to understanding the impacts of climate change on Earth's waters. Professor Ristroph's research has been covered by media outlets such as Cosmos and ENN, highlighting its significance in climate science and fluid dynamics.

Research topics

• Engineering
• Computer Science
• Physics
• Geology
• Paleontology
• Electrical engineering
• Mathematics
• Mechanics
• Thermodynamics
• Geometry

Selected publications

• Early turbulence and pulsatile flows enhance diodicity of Tesla’s macrofluidic valve

  Nature Communications · 78 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Abstract Microfluidics has enabled a revolution in the manipulation of small volumes of fluids. Controlling flows at larger scales and faster rates, or macrofluidics, has broad applications but involves the unique complexities of inertial flow physics. We show how such effects are exploited in a device proposed by Nikola Tesla that acts as a diode or valve whose asymmetric internal geometry leads to direction-dependent fluidic resistance. Systematic tests for steady forcing conditions reveal tha…

  DOI

• Ultra-sharp pinnacles sculpted by natural convective dissolution

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2020 · 37 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  The evolution of landscapes, landforms, and other natural structures involves highly interactive physical and chemical processes that often lead to intriguing shapes and recurring motifs. Particularly intricate and fine-scale features characterize the so-called karst morphologies formed by mineral dissolution into water. An archetypal form is the tall, slender, and sharply tipped karst pinnacle or rock spire that appears in multitudes in striking landforms called stone forests, but whose formati…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Lateral flow interactions enhance speed and stabilize formations of flapping swimmers

  Physical Review Fluids · 2022-06-06 · 33 citations

  articleSenior author

  A swimming fish leaves behind an orderly pattern of vortices, but schools of fish are not ordered into lattice arrangements. Our experiments on robotic hydrofoils show how flapping swimmers can benefit from hydrodynamic interactions and stay in a school even without specific positioning relative to neighbors.

  PublisherDOI

• Centre of mass location, flight modes, stability and dynamic modelling of gliders

  Journal of Fluid Mechanics · 2022-02-24 · 24 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Falling paper flutters and tumbles through air, whereas a paper airplane glides smoothly if its leading edge is appropriately weighted. We investigate this transformation from ‘plain paper’ to ‘paper plane’ through experiments, aerodynamic modelling and free flight simulations of thin plates with differing centre of mass (CoM) locations. Periodic modes such as fluttering, tumbling and bounding give way to steady gliding and then downward diving as the CoM is increasingly displaced towards one ed…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Flow interactions lead to self-organized flight formations disrupted by self-amplifying waves

  Nature Communications · 2024-04-24 · 21 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Collectively locomoting animals are often viewed as analogous to states of matter in that group-level phenomena emerge from individual-level interactions. Applying this framework to fish schools and bird flocks must account for visco-inertial flows as mediators of the physical interactions. Motivated by linear flight formations, here we show that pairwise flow interactions tend to promote crystalline or lattice-like arrangements, but such order is disrupted by unstably growing positional waves.…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• PostDoctoral Research Fellowship

  NSF · $135k · 2011–2015

• Shape dynamics of melting ice: Experiments, simulations, modeling and analysis

  NSF · $632k · 2022–2026

• Interactions of shapeable boundaries with flowing fluids:Experiments and mathematical modeling

  NSF · $320k · 2018–2022

Frequent coauthors

• Michael Shelley

  106 shared

• Stephen Childress

  48 shared

• Jun Zhang

  Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry

  38 shared

• Jun Zhang

  University of Chinese Academy of Sciences

  32 shared

• Scott Weady

  Flatiron Health (United States)

  28 shared

• Joel W. Newbolt

  Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences

  26 shared

• Jun Zhang

  Chinese PLA General Hospital

  24 shared

• Jinzi Mac Huang

  21 shared

Labs

• Applied Mathematics LaboratoryPI

Similar researchers at New York University

• Yann LeCunh-144
• Hong Wangh-117
• Jinyoung Parkh-10