Skip to content Skip to navigation

Center for Soft Matter Research

Research in soft condensed matter is concerned with materials whose basic units consist of many atoms or molecules. Examples include complex fluids such as biological and synthetic polymers, emulsions, liquid crystals, and colloids (aka nanoparticles), as well as gels and granular materials. There is also a close connection between biology and soft condensed matter physics. The constituents of living tissues – protein, DNA, cells and cellular membranes – are complex fluids. Biological systems also provide a rich setting for exploring many fundamental issues in nonequilibrium statistical mechanics. Research at the CSMR focuses on a broad spectrum of fundamental problems in soft condensed matter and biological physics. These include the the glass transition & jamming, self-replication, self-assembly, protein folding, and the statistical mechanics of driven dissipative systems far from equilibrium.

Instrumentation: 

The facility has no instruments.