Giovanniantonio Natale
Associate Professor
PhD - Chemical Engineering
MSc - Chemical Engineering
BSc - Chemical Engineering
Contact information
Location
Preferred method of communication
If you are interested in joining Dr. Natale’s Complex fluids laboratory, whether as an undergraduate or graduate student, or as a postdoctoral scholar, please contact him with your research background, a current CV, and a short one page statement of why you want to study colloidal science and/or rheology. Please, check the department guidelines to ensure that you will meet the requirements for admission: https://www.ucalgary.ca/future-students/graduate/explore-programs/chemical-petroleum-engineering-doctor-philosophy-thesis-based.
Experience in low Reynolds hydrodynamics, rheology, microscopy and colloidal science is definitely an asset. Also, researchers with different backgrounds than chemical engineering (physics, chemistry, applied mathematics, etc.) are also very welcome.
Research
Research areas
- Rheology and microrheology of complex fluids
- Engineering of micro/nano particles
- Anisotropic particles suspension
- Active colloids
Activities
Dr. Natale’s research interests lie at the interface between rheology, soft matter and active/passive colloidal suspensions. A combination of modeling and experiments is applied to explain in depth the rheological behaviour of complex/structured fluids.
More details on the current research areas can be found in the personal webpage. The Complex Fluids Laboratory is always looking for new challenges and collaborations.
Feel free to contact and visit us.
Biography
Before coming to the University of Calgary, Dr. Natale was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia. In the group of Prof. S. Hatzikiriakos, he worked on the dynamics of self-propelling particles in complex fluids. Dr. Natale holds a PhD from École Polytechnique de Montréal under the supervision of Prof. P.J. Carreau, M.C. Heuzey and J. Férec (from Université de Bretagne-Sud). There, he studied the rheology of rod-like particles suspensions and specifically, carbon nanotube suspensions. Dr. Natale’s work is published in multiple peer-reviewed journal publications (Journal of Rheology, AIChE Journal, Food Hydro-colloids, Journal of Material Chemistry, etc.) and presented at national and international conferences (Society of Rheology, European Society of Rheology, American Physical Society, Canadian Chemical Engineering Conference and more).
Publications
Selected publications
De Corato, M., & Natale, G. (2019). Oscillatory Shear Response of the Rigid Rod Model: Microstructural Evolution. Macromolecules.
Natale, G., Reddy, N. K., Prud'homme, R. K., & Vermant, J. (2018). Orientation dynamics of dilute functionalized graphene suspensions in oscillatory flow. Physical Review Fluids, 3(6), 063303.
Natale, G., Datt, C., Hatzikiriakos, S. G., & Elfring, G. J. (2017). Autophoretic locomotion in weakly viscoelastic fluids at finite Péclet number. Physics of Fluids, 29(12), 123102.
Natale, G., Reddy, N. K., Ausias, G., Férec, J., Heuzey, M. C., & Carreau, P. J. (2015). Rheo-optical response of carbon nanotube suspensions. Journal of Rheology, 59(2), 499-524.
Natale, G., Heuzey, M. C., Carreau, P. J., Ausias, G., & Férec, J. (2014). Rheological modeling of carbon nanotube suspensions with rod–rod interactions. AIChE Journal, 60(4), 1476-1487.
Awards
Selected awards
2019/06 – Schulich School of Engineering Faculty Teaching Award
2015/04 – Presentation Award at the 10th Annual European rheology conference (AERC)
2014/10 – Student Poster Award at the 86th Annual meeting of the Society of Rheology (SoR)
2012/09 – “Premio di Laurea” for top graduating student in Chemical Engineering at Federico II University of Naples