Andrés Cook

Graduate Student

About Andrés

A Chicago native, Andrés has come back home for his PhD after four years at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California. There, he worked with Mark Ilton modeling high-speed spring-driven motion in animals and studying the materials that power them.

Education

B.S. Physics, Harvey Mudd College, 2021

Favorite Quote

“All art is an imitation of nature.”

-Seneca

Scientific Hero

Alexander Fleming- discovered penicillin and then refused to patent it so more people could access it!

Favorite Paper

“Dimensionality and Dynamics in the Behavior of C. Elegans” An awesome paper that shows how worms change their shapes to move and how straightforward that motion really is! Also, it uses the word “eigenworm”, which is just fantastic.

If you could be a piece of lab equipment, what would you be?

"Being a centrifuge must be nice, it’s like being on a carousel all the time."

Andrés' Research

Currently, Andrés is working on using high-power lasers to manufacture patterned polymers by controlling how heat flows through a resin. These structures can allow us to create structured materials with less energy and less heavy machinery.