Dr. Jan Moláček

Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization


  • Since 2016 Project leader at MPIDS, Göttingen, Germany
  • 2013-2017 Postdoctoral Fellow, Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Göttingen, Germany
  • 2008-2013 Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA with Prof. John Bush
  • 2007-2008 Certificate of Advanced Studies in Mathematics, University of Cambridge, UK
  • 2004-2007 B.A. in Mathematics, University of Cambridge, UK



Major Research Interests
How do cloud droplets grow to produce rain? What do droplets bouncing on a vibrating substrate have in common with quantum mechanics? How to best capture the dynamics governing liquid drops that happens over very small temporal and spatial scales? The interaction of droplets with each other, with turbulent flows and with more complicated bodies provides a rich area of study, both from an experimental as well as theoretical point of view. My current focus is an investigation of the influence of turbulence on the dynamics and growth of cloud droplets and other cloud particles, by means of a particle-tracking system installed at our field laboratory at the Schneefernerhaus research station near Zugspitze. At our Göttingen laboratory, I study drop-drop interactions under a variety of conditions and also continue to develop theoretical basis for the fascinating topic of hydrodynamic quantum analogies.



Homepage Department/Research Group
http://www.lfpn.ds.mpg.de/turbulence/home.html


Selected Recent Publications


  • Capelo HL, Moláček J, Lambrechts M, Lawson JM, Johansen A, Blum J, Bodenschatz E, Xu H (2019) Observation of aerodynamic instability in the flow of a particle stream in a dilute gas, Astronomy & Astrophysics, Vol. 622(A151), 20 pp

  • Oza AU, Siéfert E, Harris DM, Moláček J, Bush JWM (2017) Orbiting pais of walking droplets: Dynamics and stability, Phys Rev Fluids 2 (5), 053601

  • Bush JWM, Oza AU, Moláček J (2014) The Wave-induced added mass of walking droplets, J Fluid Mech 755, R7

  • Moláček J, Bush JWM (2013) Drops bouncing on a vibrating bath, J Fluid Mech 727, 582-611

  • Moláček J, Bush JWM (2013) Drops walking on a vibrating bath: towards a hydrodynamic pilot-wave theory, J Fluid Mech 727 , 612-647