Tine Curk is an assistant professor of materials science and engineering at Johns Hopkins University. He is also a member of the Institute for NanoBioTechnology (INBT), the Data Science and AI Institute (DSAI), and holds a secondary appointment in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the same university. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physics from the University of Maribor in 2012, and received his PhD in chemistry from the University of Cambridge in 2016 under the supervision of Daan Frenkel. Before moving to Johns Hopkins University in 2023, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (under the mentorship of Jure Dobnikar) and at Northwestern University (under the mentorship of Erik Luijten). His academic honors include a Herchel Smith Fellowship, a CAS Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowship, and a Marie Curie Fellowship.

His research focuses on the theory and computer modeling of soft materials. Together with his team, he uses the tools of statistical mechanics and molecular simulations to understand fascinating phenomena that emerge from interactions among numerous components. Practical applications include designing functional soft materials and biomaterials, as well as exploring charge-structure relationships at the nanoscale. In his current projects, he focuses on the self-assembly of lipid nanoparticles for RNA delivery, understanding multivalent interactions, and designing soft actuators (so-called artificial muscles) and intelligent soft materials capable of processing information (so-called artificial brains). More information about his research projects is available on the laboratory website.