Author Archive

Anna Balazs is made a Materials Research Society Fellow

Congratulations to Soft Matter Editorial Board member Anna Balazs, who has been made a Fellow of the Materials Research Society (MRS) this year.

This recognition honors MRS members who are notable for their distinguished accomplishments and their outstanding contributions to the advancement of materials research, worldwide. 

Anna, who is a Professor at the University of Pittsburgh, was awarded the Fellowship “for pioneering contributions to the prediction of materials behavior, ranging from nanocomposites to self-healing materials to oscillating gels, through the development of novel computational models.” Congratulations, Anna, on an excellent achievement!

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Paul Janmey joins the Soft Matter Editorial Board

We are delighted to welcome our new Soft Matter Editorial Board member Professor Paul Janmey.

Soft Matter Associate Editor Paul JanmeyPaul Janmey is a Professor of Physiology at the Institute for Medicine and Engineering, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania (USA).  After receiving his PhD in Physical Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin, Professor Janmey undertook a post-doctoral fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he developed an approach to apply polymer physics methods to study the cytoskeleton.
 
In his research work, Professor Janmey uses a variety of imaging, scattering and rheologic methods to study of cell mechanics. His current interests include:

  • viscoelastic properties of biopolymer networks
  • how and why cells respond to their mechanical environment
  • the regulation of cytoskeletal and extracellular matrix assembly
  • new biocompatible materials for tissue engineering and wound healing

As a Soft Matter Associate Editor, Professor Janmey will be handling submissions to the journal. Why not submit your next paper to his Editorial Office?

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Soft Matter 2014 Lectureship: Update

Thank you to everyone who nominated a candidate for the Soft Matter 2014 Lectureship. The response has been fantastic and we now have an extensive list of excellent nominees for our Editorial Board to consider. We will be announcing the winner next month-do keep an eye on the blog for further news!

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Hot articles for April!

Tunable interactions between paramagnetic colloidal particles driven in a modulated ratchet potential
Arthur V. Straube and Pietro Tierno


Phase behavior of Janus colloids determined by sedimentation equilibrium
Daniel J. Beltran-Villegas, Benjamin A. Schultz, Nguyen H. P. Nguyen, Sharon C. Glotzer and Ronald G. Larson

These papers are free to access until 23rd May 2014


The effect of drop volume and micropillar shape on the apparent contact angle of ordered microstructured surfaces
Luciano Afferrante and Giuseppe Carbone


(more…)

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Rideal Travel Bursaries – Submit Your Application by 15 April 2014

Applications for the Rideal Travel Bursaries of up to £500 are now open to Society of Chemical Industry* (SCI) and Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) members. Submit your application and reference letters by 15 April 2014.

These bursaries provide funds to promising PhD students and postdoctoral researchers in the general field of colloid and surface science to attend conferences and/or visit relevant research institutions. We are currently inviting applications for travel between 1 July and 31 December 2014.

The bursaries are offered by the Sir Eric Rideal Trust (managed jointly by the RSC and SCI). They are awarded twice a year on a competitive basis.

If you are applying for a bursary to attend a conference between 1 January 2015 and 30 June 2015, applications will re-open in the autumn, with a deadline of 15 October 2014.

See what previous recipients have achieved:

Patricia Esteban Perez, reports on her attendance at Bacteriophage in Medicine, Food and Biotechnology

Alexander Rosu-Finsen, reports on his attendance at 9th International Vacuum Conference in Paris

*This only applies to standard or student members; travel bursaries are not open to e-members.

Find out more:

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Soft Matter now indexed in Medline!

We are delighted to announce that Soft Matter has been accepted for inclusion in the prestigious MEDLINE abstracting / indexing service.

All articles published in Soft Matter will now be included, and searchable using PubMed. This will provide even greater visibility to the great research being published in the journal, particularly in the bio/medical communities.

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Proteins, cells, and tissues in patterned environments: themed issue now published!

The Soft Matter themed issue on Proteins, cells, and tissues in patterned environments is now online! Guest Editors Ulrich Schwarz (University of Heidelberg), Celeste Nelson (Princeton University) and Pascal Silberzan (Institut Curie) introduce the issue in their Editorial.

Over the last two decades, the role of spatial coordination has increasingly moved into the focus of researchers working on biological systems. Using tools from materials science, it has been revealed that the amazing capacity of biological systems to organize themselves strongly depends on the way the environment is spatially structured. For this themed issue, researchers from the biophysics, biophysical chemistry, cell biology and bioengineering communities were invited to contribute studies based on spatially controlled environments which can be used as modulators, control elements or sensors for the self-organized assembly of proteins, cells and tissue. Below are just some of the excellent papers we received:

On the cover:

Alignment of nematic and bundled semiflexible polymers in cell-sized confinement José Alvarado, Bela M. Mulder and Gijsje H. Koenderink  

Communications:

Co- and distinct existence of Tris-NTA and biotin functionalities on individual and adjacent micropatterned surfaces generated by photo-destruction Atanu Biswas, Abhijit Saha, Dhruba Ghosh, Batakrishna Jana and Surajit Ghosh  

Papers:

Three-dimensional patterning of multiple cell populations through orthogonal genetic control of cell motility Joanna L. MacKay, Anshum Sood and Sanjay Kumar  

Oscillations of Min-proteins in micropatterned environments: a three-dimensional particle-based stochastic simulation approach Max Hoffmann and Ulrich S. Schwarz  

Cellular self-organization on micro-structured surfaces Peter J. F. Röttgermann, Alicia Piera Alberola and Joachim O. Rädler 

Optimal shapes and stresses of adherent cells on patterned substrates Shiladitya Banerjee, Rastko Sknepnek and M. Cristina Marchetti  

Intracellular stresses in patterned cell assemblies Michel Moussus, Christelle der Loughian, David Fuard, Marie Courçon, Danielle Gulino-Debrac, Hélène Delanoë-Ayari and Alice Nicolas  

Hyperswarming adaptations in a bacterium improve collective motility without enhancing single cell motility Maxime Deforet, Dave van Ditmarsch, Carlos Carmona-Fontaine and Joao B. Xavier  

Find the full issue here!

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Soft Matter Lectureship: Nominations close this Friday 14th March

There are only a few days left to nominate someone for the Soft Matter Lectureship!

A reminder of the details:

Qualification

To be eligible for the Soft Matter Lectureship, the candidate should be in the earlier stages of their scientific career, typically within 15 years of attaining their doctorate or equivalent degree, and will have made a significant contribution to the field.

Description

The recipient of the award will be asked to present a lecture three times, one of which will be located in the home country of the recipient. The Soft Matter Editorial Office will provide the sum of £1000 to the recipient for travel and accommodation costs.

The award recipient will be presented with the award at one of the three award lectures. They will also be asked to contribute a lead article to the journal and will have their work showcased on the back cover of the issue in which their article is published.

Selection

The recipient of the award will be selected and endorsed by the Soft Matter Editorial Board.

Nominations

Those wishing to make a nomination should send details of the nominee, including a brief C.V. (no longer than 2 pages A4) together with a letter (no longer than 2 pages A4) supporting the nomination, to the Soft Matter Editorial Office (softmatter-rsc@rsc.org) by 14 March 2014.  Self-nomination is not permitted.

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Hot Articles for March!

 

 


Rheology dynamics of aggregating colloidal suspensions
Mikael Mohtaschemi, Antti Puisto, Xavier Illa and Mikko J. Alava 
 
 

 These papers are free to access until 28th April 2014
 


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Introducing Soft Matter Advisory Board member Arindam Banerjee

We are very pleased to welcome new Soft Matter Advisory Board member Arindam Banerjee.

Arindam Banerjee earned his Ph.D. (Science) degree in 1997 from the Molecular Biophysics unit, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. He was a visiting scientist (Postdoctoral Fellow) at the Weizman Institute of Science, Israel from January to June 1998 in the department of Membrane Research & Biophysics. He  joined the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata, India on 1st July 1998 as a lecturer in the department of Biological Chemistry and became a full professor with effect from December, 2009. His current research areas include the self-assembly of peptides /amino acid  derivatives; smart soft materials, gels, multipurpose applications of these soft materials including carriers for anti-cancer drugs and other biologically important molecules; organic-inorganic functional nanohybrids; white-light emitting materials and fluorescent noble metal nanoclusters.

Professor Banerjee has published over 100 research papers in various international journals and has supervised 12 PhD students. He served as the Head of Department from May 2009-May 2012. He has delivered more than 60 invited scientific lectures at various national and international conferences.

Arindam’s recent papers include:

Jayanta Nanda, Abhijit Biswas and Arindam Banerjee
Soft Matter, 2013, 9, 4198-4208 DOI: 10.1039/C3SM27050E
Dibakar Kumar Maiti and Arindam Banerjee
Chem. Commun., 2013, 49, 6909-6911 DOI: 10.1039/C3CC43371D
Shibaji Basak, Jayanta Nanda and Arindam Banerjee
Chem. Commun., 2014, 50, 2356-2359 DOI: 10.1039/C3CC48896A
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