Group Members

Kaloian Koynov studied physics at the Sofia University and received his diploma in 1993. In 1997 he received his PhD from the same university for a work on cascaded nonlinear optical processes and their applications for all-optical switching in the group of Solomon Saltiel. Then he spent a postdoctoral year in the Institute for Fundamental Electronics, University Paris Sud, France, studying grating couplers into semiconductor waveguides. In 2000 he joined the department of Wolfgang Knoll at the MPI for Polymer Research as a postdoc and EU Marie Curie Fellow. Here, he worked with Christoph Bubeck on the nonlinear optical properties of thin films of conjugated polymers. Since 2006 he is a group leader in the department of Hans-Jürgen Butt at the MPIP, where he leads the Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy group. In addition, he is in charge of the service laboratory “Mechanic / Dielectric Properties” that provides numerous possibilities for characterization of macromolecular materials.

Léa Delance studied physics at ENS de Lyon (France) and obtained her master's degree in 2020. In 2023, she received her PhD from ESPCI (Paris, France) for a work on the effect of antifoaming additives on the foaming of organic liquids. She joined Kaloian Koynov's group as a postdoc in 2024 working on the sliding dynamics of suspension drops. In general, her research interests include the physics of foams, emulsions, and wetting. She adopts an experimental approach using various microscopy techniques (AFM, light interferometry, confocal), dynamic light scattering, tensiometry. She also enjoys developing in-house experiments and codes for image analysis.

Yaolei Xiang got his bachelor's degree from Northwestern Polytechnical University, China in 2014, majoring in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, and a doctoral degree from Peking University, China in 2019, majoring in Solid Mechanics. From 2019 to 2021, he worked as a postdoc with the support of the Boya postdoctoral fellowship program at Peking University. In October 2021, he joined Dr. Kaloian Koynov's group as a postdoc to study charge effects in droplet sliding by using ultra-fast high resolution microscopy. His research interests are electro-sliding on solid surfaces, wetting on structured surfaces, and flow control mediated by the liquid-gas interface.

Karina was born in Santiago, Chile. She received her Bachelor and Master’s degree in Physics at the Technical University Federico Santa Maria in Valparaíso, Chile. During her Master’s thesis she worked on the design and construction of an electrospinning chamber for the fabrication of polymeric nanofibers whose swelling properties were further studied with an afm with ambient control. Since 2021 she’s performing her PhD studies at the MPIP studying wetting and dewetting properties of polymeric coatings using fluorescent probes. Besides work, Karina loves doing sports, traveling and playing musical instruments. Besides to her work, she likes dancing and painting.

Lin Jian studied engineering in China Agricultural University (Beijing, China), and got his bachelor's degree in 2020. Then completed his Master's degree in Biological and Medicinal Chemistry at the Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Beijing) in 2023. Curently he’s doning his PhD with the supervision of Kaloian Koynov, studying drug nanocarriers and slippery covalently-attached liquid surfaces with Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy.

Diego obtained his Bachelor's and Master degree in Physics in the Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, Valparaíso Chile. During his master thesis, he made his research at the MPIP, using AFM to study capillary and friction forces in the group of Michael Kappl. His experience as researcher also includes AFM to study mechanical properties and cell adhesion measurements. Currently, he is doing his PhD with the supervision of Kaloian Koynov, using high precision optic instruments to study wetting interactions and drop charging. Outside his work as researcher, Diego enjoy Music and art in general.

Andreas Best takes care of the equipment in the Fluorescent Correlation Spectroscopy Lab and supports students and postdocs in using it. Furthermore, he helps researches in the Physics at Interfaces department to design and build new experimental setups and writes program codes for data evaluation.

Andreas Hanewald takes care of the equipment in the Mechanical Laboratory and supports various rheological and tensile tests service measurements at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research. Furthermore, he performs DSC measurements and computer administration for the Physics at Interfaces department.