Connor Magoon
I am a fourth-year Applied Mathematics PhD student at UNC Chapel Hill. Previously, I received my BS in physics and applied math.
I have broad interests, spanning understanding physical phenomena to developing mathematical tools for solving applied problems. One central thread sewn through all my work is geometry: leveraging simple geometry as a means for explanation, and tackling complex geometry which is prevalent in the non-ideal real world. I work on simulations and modeling of fluids in the Physical Mathematics Lab under the direction of Pedro Sáenz, and in the intersection of optimization, machine learning, and graphics with advisor Shahar Kovalsky.During Summer 2026, I interned as a pre-doctoral researcher at the Flatiron Institute, mentored by Scott Weady and David Stein within the biophysical modeling group, developing numerical methods for solving models of confined polar active suspensions.
Research
Click figures to enlarge and display short project descriptions.Galloping Bubbles: Three-Part Series
A deep-dive experimental, numerical, and theoretical follow-up to our initial discovery of galloping bubbles, which are vertically vibrating millimetric-sized bubbles that spontaneously break symmetry and self-propel along a horizontal wall. At their heart is the parametric excitation of symmetrical and asymmetrical shape modes that together generate a non-reciprocal deformation, enabling the bubble to swim.
Coming soon
dQP: Differentiating Quadratic Programs
dQP is a modular framework for differentiating the solution to a quadratic programming problem (QP) with respect to its parameters, enabling the seamless integration of QPs into machine learning architectures and bilevel optimization. dQP supports over 15 state-of-the-art QP solvers.
NeurIPS (2025)
Galloping Bubbles
We discover, rationalize, and apply a fluid instability in which a vertically vibrating millimetric-sized bubble spontaneously breaks symmetry and self-propels along a horizontal wall. Applications include bubble removal, bubble sorting, surface cleaning, and even solving mazes!
Awarded an APS DFD Gallery of Fluid Motion Award.
Awarded an APS DFD Gallery of Fluid Motion Award.
Nature Communications (2025)
Traveling Faraday Waves
We present a Faraday wave instability where a vertically vibrated annular bath spontaneously breaks symmetry from standing waves into fast traveling waves.
Awarded an APS DFD Milton van Dyke Award.
Awarded an APS DFD Milton van Dyke Award.
Physical Review Fluids (2023)
Confined Polar Active Suspensions
We model biological systems comprised of microscale active swimmers, which collectively exert large-scale stresses on the fluid in which they swim to generate striking emergent dynamics.
Ongoing Poster
Collective Galloping Bubbles
Building on our discovery of galloping bubbles, we comprehensively investigate their collective dynamics in the dilute regime, providing a framework for understanding how shape deformation and hydrodynamic interactions govern many-body dynamics. We thus connect collective hydrodynamic phenomena in deformable, wet active matter systems to the controlled transport of bubbles.
Ongoing
Neural Mappings
We explore applications of differentiable optimization in classic computational geometry tasks.
Ongoing
