Laura Fisher, Deputy Editor – Soft Matter Blog

Author Archive

Outstanding Reviewers for Soft Matter in 2018

25 Mar 2019

Outstanding Reviewers for Soft Matter in 2018

We would like to highlight the Outstanding Reviewers for Soft Matter in 2018, as selected by the editorial team, for their significant contribution to the journal. The reviewers have been chosen based on the number, timeliness and quality of the reports completed over the last 12 months.

We would like to say a big thank you to those individuals listed here as well as to all of the reviewers that have supported the journal. Each Outstanding Reviewer will receive a certificate to give recognition for their significant contribution.

Professor Arindam Banerjee, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science ORCiD: 0000-0002-1309-921X

Professor Peter Beltramo, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Dr Ronald Larson, University of Michigan ORCiD: 0000-0001-7465-1963

Professor Zichen Li, Peking University ORCiD: 0000-0002-0746-9050

Professor Yan Qiao, Institute of Chemistry, CAS ORCiD: 0000-0003-1069-7756

Professor Dejun Sun, Shandong University

Professor Yilin Wang, Institute of Chemistry, CAS ORCiD: 0000-0002-8455-390X

Professor Roland Winkler, Forschungszentrum Jülich ORCiD: 0000-0002-7513-0796

Dr Lixin Wu, Jilin University ORCiD: 0000-0002-4735-8558

Dr Yun Yan, Peking University ORCiD: 0000-0001-8759-3918

We would also like to thank the Soft Matter board and the soft matter research community for their continued support of the journal, as authors, reviewers and readers.

If you would like to become a reviewer for our journal, just email us with details of your research interests and an up-to-date CV or résumé. You can find more details in our author and reviewer resource centre

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Submit to Soft Matter using Overleaf

17 Jan 2018

Image of RSC and Overleaf logos

In May 2016, the Royal Society of Chemistry announced a new partnership with Overleaf, whereby authors submitting to Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics (PCCP) could access Overleaf’s collaborative cloud-based writing and reviewing tool with 1-click submission into the PCCP ScholarOne submission system. In 2017, this partnership was extended, and authors can now submit their manuscripts to Soft Matter using the same system.

To help authors publish their research with us we host our Soft Matter LaTeX template in the Overleaf authoring tool. Overleaf simplifies LaTeX authorship by enabling collaborators to easily prepare and edit their manuscripts with realtime format previewing, simple document sharing and collaboration, user support and LaTeX help.

With one click, the PDF of your manuscript and a ZIP file of the LaTeX source files are sent directly to the Soft Matter submission system without the need to download and re-upload files, making the process quicker and easier.

A free introductory course is available to authors who are new to LaTeX and Overleaf. Our Microsoft Word templates are located in our author guidelines.

The template is also available from the Soft Matter website.

About Overleaf

Founded in 2012 and with over 400,000 registered users, Overleaf is an academic authorship tool that allows seamless collaboration and effortless manuscript submission, all underpinned by cloud-technology. By providing an intuitive online collaborative writing and publishing platform, Overleaf is making the process of writing, editing and publishing scientific documents quicker and easier. Researchers and academics can now write, collaborate, and publish with a single click, directly from the Overleaf web-app. Publishers and Institutions are partnering with Overleaf to provide customized writing templates, simple reference tool linking, and one-click publishing submission links.

Supported by Digital Science, Overleaf aims to make science and research faster, more open and more transparent by bringing the whole scientific writing process into one place in the cloud – from idea, to writing, to review, to publication.

Follow @overleaf and @softmatter on Twitter.

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2018 Soft Matter Lectureship is now open for nominations!

16 Nov 2017

Do you know an early-career researcher who deserves recognition for their contribution to the soft matter field?

Now is your chance to put them forward for the accolade they deserve.

Soft Matter is pleased to announce that nominations are now being accepted for its 2018 Lectureship award. This annual award was established in 2009 to honour an early-stage career scientist who has made a significant contribution to the soft matter field.

2017 winner Daeyeon Lee gives his talk at the Colloid and Interface Symposium

Previous winners

2017 – Daeyeon Lee, University of Pennsylvania, USA

2016 – Damien Baigl, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, France

2015 – Lucio Isa, ETH Zürich, Switzerland

2014 – Eric Dufresne, Yale Univeristy, USA

2013 – Eric Furst, University of Delaware, USA

2012 – Patrick Doyle, MIT, USA

2011 – Michael J. Solomon, University of Michigan, USA

2010 – Bartosz Grzybowski, UNIST, Republic of Korea

2009 – Emanuela Zaccarelli, University of Rome, Italy

Qualification

To be eligible for the Soft Matter Lectureship, the candidate should be in the earlier stages of their scientific career, typically within 12 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 at a meeting in 2018, where they will also be presented with the award. The Soft Matter Editorial Office will provide financial support to the recipient for travel and accommodation costs.

The recipient will also be asked to contribute a lead article to the journal and will have their work showcased free of charge on the front 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. and a letter supporting the nomination, to the Soft Matter Editorial Office by 28^thFebruary 2018. Self-nomination is not permitted.

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Welcoming our new Soft Matter Editorial Board Members

13 Sep 2017

We are excited to welcome three new members to the Soft Matter editorial board Gijsje Koenderink (AMOLF), Emanuela Zaccarelli (Sapienza University of Rome), Xuehua Zhang (RMIT University).

Gijsje Koenderink is professor of Biological Soft Matter at the NWO Institute AMOLF in Amsterdam, where she also heads the Systems Biophysics Department. She is furthermore affiliated with the Faculty of Sciences of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. She received her PhD in chemistry from Utrecht University, studying phase behaviour and dynamics in colloidal mixtures, and moved into the field of cell biophysics during her postdoc at Harvard University.

Koenderink’s research focuses on experimental physics of living matter, right at the interface of biophysics and soft condensed matter. Koenderink received several prestigious personals grants including an HFSP Young Investigator grant, NWO-VIDI, and ERC StG grant.

Emanuela Zaccarelli is a Senior Researcher at the Institute of Complex Systems of the Italian National Research Council (CNR), based at the Physics Department of the Sapienza University of Rome. After graduating in Physics at the same University in 1999, she obtained a PhD in Physical Chemistry from the University College of Dublin, Ireland in 2002.

Emanuela’s main research interests are on phase behavior and dynamic arrest of complex fluids, including colloids with depletion interactions, star polymers, microgels, clays and patchy particles.

She was the first recipient of the Soft Matter Lectureship in 2009 for her studies on gels and glasses in colloidal suspensions.

Xuehua Zhang completed her PhD in Biomedical Engineering at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. From July 2014 on she joined RMIT University as an Associate Professor in School of Engineering and in October 2014 she was also appointed as a part-time Professor in Physics of Fluids Group at University of Twente.

Her research topics cover surface nanobubbles and nanodroplets, microwetting, surface forces, spontaneous emulsification, microextraction, self-assembly of colloids, evaporation and dissolution of multicomponent droplets, and bubble dynamics in catalytic reactions.

We are delighted that they have joined the Soft Matter team!

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Congratulations to the Soft Matter award winners at GelSympo2017

13 Mar 2017

The 11th International Gel Symposium was held at Nihon University in Chiba, Japan last week, and Soft Matter would like to congratulate the following, who were awarded prizes for their poster presentations:

Ai Saito (Graduate School of Chem. Sci. and Eng., Hokkaido University)
Role of concentration of microtubule and a depletant in the emergence of collective motion of microtubules driven by kinesins

Gantumur Enkhtuul (Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University)
Cytocompatible hydrogelation through enzymatic cross-linking mediated by glucose and cysteine residues in the enzyme

Gargi Joshi (Energy and Environment Area, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology)
Directional control of diffusion and swelling in hydrogels prepared from cyanobacterial exopolysaccharide

Kateryna Khairulina (School of Engineering, Department of Bioengineering, The University of Tokyo)
Mobility of low molecular weight compounds in tetra-PEG-graphene oxide hydrogels

Koki Sano (Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology, The University of Tokyo)
Ultralarge mechanical anisotropy of a hydrogel with aligned nanosheets

Michika Onoda (School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo)
Artificial amoeba: Self-oscillating polymeric fluids with autonomous sol-gel transition

Takahiro Matsuda (Graduate School of Life Science, Hokkaido University)
Mechanical stress triggers productive mechanochemical reactions in double network gels

Takuma Kureha (Graduate School of Textile Science & Technology, Shinshu University)
Selective adsorption of halide compounds from aqueous solution by poly(2-methoxyethylacrylate)-based hydrogel microspheres

Yasushi Shojima (Graduate School of Science, Osaka University)
Dissimilar solid materials binding with self-healable supramolecular materials through host-guest interaction

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Soft Matter Emerging Investigators issue now online

22 Dec 2016

Issue 1 of Volume 13 of Soft Matter is an Emerging Investigators special issue, highlighting the recent work of leading researchers in the field who are in the earlier stages of their careers as group leaders.

The collection showcases both experimental and theoretical work from around the globe, and features investigations across a wide diversity of soft materials, including polymers, liquid crystals, nanoparticles, foams, emulsions and biological matter.

Check out the Editorial by Executive Editor Neil Hammond.

A few articles from the themed issue are highlighted below

Drop morphologies on flexible fibers: influence of elastocapillary effects
Alban Sauret, François Boulogne, Katarzyna Somszor, Emilie Dressaire and Howard A. Stone

Dynamic dilution exponent in monodisperse entangled polymer solutions
T. Shahid, Q. Huang, F. Oosterlinck, C. Clasen and E. van Ruymbeke

Ion specificities of artificial macromolecules
Lvdan Liu, Ran Kou and Guangming Liu

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Crystal expansion makes light work of moving microbeads

28 Nov 2016

Moving microbeads in liquid crystals
Light-induced displacement of a microbead through the thermal expansion of liquid crystals

By exploiting local thermal expansion and mesophase changes, scientists from Japan are able to move microbeads dispersed in a liquid crystal using UV light, despite neither material being light-responsive.

Takenaka and Yamamoto from the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Japan have used UV light to move a microbead through a 4-cyano-4′-pentylbiphenyl liquid crystal, without the need for a complicated experimental setup or addition of photo responsive materials.

Read the full story by Amy Middleton-Gear in Chemistry World.

This article is free to access until 16 January 2016

Y Takenaka and T Yamamoto, Soft Matter, 2016. DOI: 10.1039/C6SM02324J

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2017 Soft Matter Lectureship is now open!

01 Nov 2016

Do you know an early-career researcher who deserves recognition for their contribution to the soft matter field?

Now is your chance to put them forward for the accolade they deserve.

Soft Matter is pleased to announce that nominations are now being accepted for its 2017 Lectureship award. This annual award was established in 2009 to honour an early-stage career scientist who has made a significant contribution to the soft matter field.

Previous winners

2016 – Damien Baigl, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, France

2015 – Lucio Isa, ETH Zürich, Switzerland

2014 – Eric Dufresne, Yale Univeristy, USA

2013 – Eric Furst, University of Delaware, USA

2012 – Patrick Doyle, MIT, USA

2011 – Michael J. Solomon, University of Michigan, USA

2010 – Bartosz Grzybowski, UNIST, Republic of Korea

2009 – Emanuela Zaccarelli, University of Rome, Italy

Qualification

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 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 by 27^th January 2017. Self-nomination is not permitted.

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13th International Conference on Materials Chemistry (MC13)

10 Oct 2016

10 – 13 July 2017, Liverpool, United Kingdom

Abstract Submission is now open

Registration opening soon.

The ‘MC’ conference series has provided a showcase for materials chemistry for two decades, and is the flagship event of the RSC’s Materials Chemistry Division.

Recent editions of the MC series have been very successful: MC8, held in London in 2007, attracted 500 delegates; in 2009, the RSC was proud to incorporate MC9 into the scientific programme of the 42nd IUPAC World Congress (IUPAC 2009) which reached an audience of over 2000 delegates; MC10 saw nearly 500 scientists present their work in Manchester in July 2011, MC11 in the comfortable surroundings of the University of Warwick’s Arts Centre reached an audience of just over 500 delegates and MC12 which took place in York saw almost 600 delegates join together.

Themes:

Materials Design
The targeted identification of new materials, spanning modelling and knowledge-led approaches i.e., routes based both on computation and an experiment-derived understanding.

Magnetic, Electronic & Optical Materials
The properties or applications of materials related to display technologies, sensors, optics, electronics, printable electronics, magnetics and information storage technologies, spanning all material types including nano, 2D, smart, carbon, and multifunctional materials.

Energy & Environment
Encompassing all aspects of Materials Chemistry related to energy conversion and, storage, and fuel generation and environment control and remediation.

Nanomaterials
Synthesis, Characterisation, Properties and Application of materials and hybrid materials with nanoscale dimensions and functionality.

Soft Matter & Biomaterials
All aspects of soft matter materials, as well as those specifically targeted at biomaterials applications, especially where there are links between design and function.

Cross Cutting Themes

Devices and Sensors
Materials Characterisation
Modeling and Computational Chemistry
Translation to Application

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Soft Matter’s latest Impact Factor is 3.798

29 Jun 2016

Soft Matter is pleased to announce that its latest Impact Factor is 3.798.

Soft Matter provides a unique forum for the communication of fundamental science underpinning the behaviour of soft matter. There is a particular focus on the interface between physics, materials science, biology, chemical engineering and chemistry. Our international team of expert Associate Editors and dedicated in-house editors ensure professional peer review and rapid times to publication.

We are extremely grateful to all our readers, authors and referees for their contribution to Soft Matter’s continued success, and to our Editorial and Advisory Board members for their hard work and dedication. Thanks to all of you, Soft Matter was cited a total of 28,934 times in 2015.

Join the many leading scientists who have already chosen to publish in Soft Matter and submit today!

Find out how other Royal Society of Chemistry journals were ranked in the latest Impact Factor release.

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Soft Matter Blog

Author Archive

Outstanding Reviewers for Soft Matter in 2018

Submit to Soft Matter using Overleaf

2018 Soft Matter Lectureship is now open for nominations!

Do you know an early-career researcher who deserves recognition for their contribution to the soft matter field?

Welcoming our new Soft Matter Editorial Board Members

Congratulations to the Soft Matter award winners at GelSympo2017

Soft Matter Emerging Investigators issue now online

Crystal expansion makes light work of moving microbeads

2017 Soft Matter Lectureship is now open!

Do you know an early-career researcher who deserves recognition for their contribution to the soft matter field?

13th International Conference on Materials Chemistry (MC13)

10 – 13 July 2017, Liverpool, United Kingdom

Themes:

Cross Cutting Themes

Soft Matter’s latest Impact Factor is 3.798

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