Toroidal Fun

Toroidal Fun Fernandez-Nieves, Alberto We study the physics of soft materials and also do physics with soft materials. In this talk, I will present an overview of some of our recent work involving, in one or another way, the use of tori. We will cover how we make toroidal and how we stabilize them against surface tension instabilities; this altogether provides an interesting way to 3D print materials. We will then discuss what we use toroidal droplets and hydrogels for. This includes the study of conventional and active liquid crystals confined to toroidal spaces, and addressing whether geometry affects cell behavior. I will then leave the torus and briefly discuss our work with colloidal hydrogels and fire ant aggregations. Presented on January 12, 2016 from 8:30-9:30 a.m. in IBB Building room 1128, on the Georgia Tech campus.; Research focus: Soft materials are materials whose properties are determined by internal structures with dimensions between atomic sizes and macroscopic scales. They are characterized by energies that are typically comparable to KBT. As a result, they have low elastic moduli, often ~1-10 Pascals. Typical soft materials include liquid crystals, polymers, colloidal suspensions and emulsion drops. These materials, unlike conventional simple liquids, are locally heterogeneous and can have broken symmetries that affect their physical properties. Hence, although they often exhibit liquid-like behavior, soft materials also often exhibit properties of solids. Our laboratory studies the physics of soft materials with a focus on the connection between microscopic order and macroscopic properties. The underlying theme is to pursue basic understanding and address fundamental questions. However, we also address applied problems and pursue industrial collaborations since many of the materials we study can be viewed as model systems for those that are often used in applications.; Alberto Fernandez-Nieves is an Associate Professor in the School of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology.; Runtime: 63:38 minutes

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