Fluidic Technologies
Laboratory

About us

We are a curiosity-driven lab with core expertise in fluid mechanics and electrokinetics. We are equally interested in understanding basic phenomena associated with the physics and chemistry of fluids as in leveraging this understanding to create new tools and new capabilities across a wide range of applications. Some of our recent contributions are in the fields of advanced manufacturing, freeform optics, in-space manufacturing, microfluidics, and biochemical analysis.

This website provides a glimpse into our past work, but the best is always yet to come.

News

Research

Fluidic Shaping of
optical components

We explore the ability to shape liquids into useful optical components by controlling surface tension.

To the project page

Fluidic Telescope Experiment (FLUTE)

FLUTE aims to find out if giant lenses and mirrors – the high-quality optical components needed for future large-aperture space telescopes – can be created from liquids in space.

To the project page

Reconfigurable
microfluidics

We explore different physical mechanisms that could enable a fully reconfigurable microfluidic device - one which can change its shape, flow pattern or function dynamically, thus allowing researchers to ‘put their hands’ into a microscale experiment and enabling real-time decision making.

To the project page

Publications

Click here for more info

Meet the team

Moran Bercovici, Ph.D.

Professor of Mechanical Engineering

Moran Bercovici is a full Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, and heads the Fluidic Technologies Laboratory. He received his BSc (2001) and MSc (2006) from the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering at Technion. Between 2001 and 2006 he was a Research Engineer at RAFAEL, working on experimental and computational aerodynamics. He received his Ph.D. from Stanford University (2011), and spent a short postdoctoral period in the Department of Urology at Stanford School of Medicine before joining Technion as a faculty member in 2011. Moran was elected among the “40 under 40 most promising individuals” in Israel by The Marker magazine, and has received numerous prestigious grants and awards for his research and teaching, including two ERC grants awarded by the European Research Council to innovative high-risk / high-gain research, the Krill Prize for Excellence in Scientific Research from the Wolf Foundation, the Yanai Prize – Technion’s highest recognition for the advancement of academic education, the Harrington Faculty Fellowship by the University of Texas at Austin, and the Blavatnik Award in Chemistry.

Download CV file

Beyond science

Valence Band hosting Prof. Moran Bercovici - ריקוד המכונה

שאלה 1: מהו ההבדל בין מסלול עם תזה למסלול ללא תזה?

Meet Dr. Moran Bercovici, 2019 Blavatnik Awards Chemistry Laureate in Israel

המחלקה ללימודים הומניסטיים ואמנויות מציגה - מפגש # 3 בסדרת "מוסיקה, מדע, השראה"

נעים עכשיו + תתארו לכם - טקס סיום הנדסת מכונות 3/7/2023

40 הצעירים המבטיחים // מדענים// ד"ר מורן ברקוביץ

Aliza Shultzer

Executive Assistant

Aliza is in charge of all administrative aspects of the lab. She holds a BSc in Biology, Hebrew University and a Master's degree in Biology and Physiology from the University of Provence in France.

Khaled Gommed, Ph.D.

Lab Engineer and Researcher

Khaled holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering and is an expert in mechanical designs, from microfabrication processes to large scale thermal system. He is involved in most of the projects and is also in charge of lab safety.

Alexey Razin

Mechatronics Engineer

Alexey is a master of prototyping and can design, build, and test any mechanical or electronic system. He has built many of the systems in the lab, as well as key components for our microgravity experiments.

Omer Luria

Research Engineer

Omer holds a masters in mechanical engineer from Tel Aviv University. He leads the microgravity research in the lab as well as the development of metrology tools for optical components.

Israel Gabay

Direct track Ph.D Candidate

Israel is both an experimentalist and a theoretician whose research focuses on thin-film dynamics, with a focus on actuation by dielectrophoresis. He received the Azrieli Graduate Fellowship.

Daniel Widerker

Direct track Ph.D Candidate

Daniel's research focuses on the creation of novel tools of microscale fabrication. He is currently developing localized multi-material electrochemical deposition, and in parallel collaborating closely with material scientists on development of novel polymers for optics. Administrative Assistant

Mor Elgarisi

Direct track Ph.D Candidate

Mor is both an experimentalist and a theoretician who leads the research on Fluidic Shaping - the creation of optical components based on interfacial phenomena under geometrical constraints. He received both the Ministry of Science and the Clore Graduate Fellowships.

Jonathan Ericson

Direct track Ph.D Candidate

Jonathan's research focuses on programmable shaping of thin liquid films by the thermocapillary effect, with the end goal of producing high quality phase masks. He is developing a system for closed loop control based on real-time measurement of the surface.

Erez Hochman

Direct track Ph.D Candidate

Erez is pursuing a degree in industrial design in the Faculty of Architecture. His research focus is on utilizing Fluidic Shaping for construction of space structures.

Ofek Efraim

M.Sc. Candidate

Ofek is developing new actuation mechanisms for reconfigurable microfluidics, and also exploring the use of fluidic shaping to create microlenses.

Amos Hari

Research Engineer

Amos is a theoretician whose research focuses on expanding the Fluidic Shaping formulation to arbitrary domains, and on developing numerical tools that would allow to predict the shape of optical components on such domains.

Yotam Katzman

Undergrad research assistant

Yotam is a 2nd year undergraduate student who is assisting in the experimental development of the Fluidic Shaping method toward fabrication of corrective eyeglasses.

Shimon Yamin

Undergrad research assistant

Shimon is a 4th year undergraduate student,. He has lots of experience in mechanical design and supports various projects.

Leeor Meir

Undergrad research assistant

Leeor is an undergraduate student in Materials Science and Engineering, and is excited about anything related to space. She is currently working on polymerization under microgravity.

Noa Gill-More

Undergrad research assistant

Noa is a 3rd year undergraduate student who is joining our lab as a research assistant, particularly our space related-projects.

Kateryna Suzina

Undergrad research assistant

Katya is an undergraduate student in Architecture, working jointly between Aaaron Sprecher's lab an ours on developing Fluidic Shaping for space structures.

Meet the group's alumni