I build at the seam between rheology and design — modeling how complex fluids climb a fiber by day, cutting a jacket pattern by night. Two trainings, one continuous curiosity about how matter behaves.
M.Eng. thesis (Corning-funded): a Bosanquet-type model with Cox–Voinov contact-line dynamics that predicts how a yield-stress, time-dependent fluid climbs a narrow gap — validated against microfluidic imaging across three gap heights.
Generative pattern-making with Prof. Fatma Baytar — translating body data into parametric blocks. Presented at ITAA 2025; manuscript in preparation.
Undergraduate thesis on negative-Poisson-ratio textile structures — geometry engineered so the material widens, rather than narrows, under tension.
Drafting, fitting, and constructing made-to-measure garments — material engineering applied at the scale of a single body. Industry work incl. Proenza Schouler & Mood Fabrics.
Sustainable fiber work with Prof. Margaret Frey (lignin nanofibers) and Prof. Ali Tehrani (IONCELL processing & hydrophobic textile finishes) — surface chemistry meeting fiber form.
Classical Lucas–Washburn theory assumes a simple Newtonian fluid. Real coating fluids don't behave: their structure builds and breaks with shear, and they resist flow until a yield stress is exceeded. I built a model that keeps the physics honest.
A Cox–Voinov correction lets the contact angle evolve with capillary number, with a single matching parameter Λ tying the macroscopic front to contact-line dissipation:
The striking result: across all three gap heights, Λ ≈ 12 held constant — pointing to an effective matching scale rather than a molecular slip length.
McD., M. et al.
Target: Journal of Non-Newtonian Fluid Mechanics
McD., M. et al.
Target: Journal of Rheology
McD., M. & Baytar, F.
ITAA Annual Conference, 2025 · manuscript in preparation
Verified DOIs added on publication — no placeholder identifiers.
A fiber under load, a fluid climbing a gap, and a seam taking the strain of a shoulder are, to me, the same question asked at different scales.
I trained twice at Cornell — first in Fiber Science & Apparel Design, then in Materials Science & Engineering — because I never accepted that the technical and the made had to be separate practices.
My research models the messy physics of real complex fluids; my design work puts material behavior under the hand at the scale of a single garment. The pleasure is the same in both: understanding how matter wants to move, then working with it rather than against it.
I'm currently completing a Corning-funded thesis on thixotropic capillary wicking, with publications in preparation, while weighing doctoral research and industry practice. I collaborate readily across groups and disciplines.
Download CV (PDF) ↓Talks at the intersection of materials science and design — rheology for makers, design thinking for engineers, and everything in the seam between.
Workshops and instruction in fiber science, soft-matter intuition, pattern-making, and computational approaches to material design.
Materials & process consulting for textiles, coatings, and functional fibers — plus design-engineering bridge work for product teams.