Rana Ashkar Ph.D.

Rana Ashkar, Ph.D.

Rana is the Patricia Caldwell Faculty Fellow and Associate Professor in the Department of Physics at Virginia Tech. Her group investigates how nanoscale structure and dynamics give rise to emergent mechanical and adaptive behavior in biological and soft materials by integrating experiment, theory, and advanced scattering methods. Research in her lab spans biophysics, soft matter physics, and nanostructured materials with applications in materials science, synthetic biology, and nanotechnology. Rana earned her Ph.D. at Indiana University, where she developed a novel neutron interferometry approach for studying materials under nanoconfinement. Her doctoral research received the Esther L. Kinsey Dissertation Award, Indiana University’s highest honor for doctoral research. She subsequently held a joint postdoctoral appointment at the University of Maryland and NIST, applying advanced neutron scattering methods to probe nanoscale dynamics in polymeric and lipidic systems. In 2015, Rana was awarded the Clifford G. Shull Fellowship at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where she led a biomembrane research program investigating dynamic responses and topographic effects in biomimetic lipid membranes using innovative experimental and computational approaches. She later joined the Virginia Tech physics faculty, where her group continues to develop state-of-the-art methods for understanding emergent behavior in complex soft and biological systems. In recognition of her contributions to the field, Rana was awarded a 2025 Sloan Research Fellowship. This prestigious honor recognizes exceptional early-career scientists whose creativity and innovation position them as emerging leaders in their disciplines.

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