Soft Matter Blog

Dr. Richard Mandle was awarded BSc and MSc degrees in Chemistry from the University of Hull. He completed his PhD in Chemistry under the supervision of Professor John Goodby FRS at the University of York in 2013 (thesis title: “The Nitro Group in Liquid Crystals”). In postdoctoral positions he developed new materials for consumer LCD devices and worked on developing materials that exhibit new nematic phase types (York), as well as on auxetic elastomers (Leeds). Dr. Mandle has published over 80 peer reviewed journal articles, was awarded the Young Scientist award of the British Liquid Crystal Society in 2017 and the Vorländer Lectureship of the German Liquid Crystal Society in 2022. In 2022 Dr. Mandle was awarded a prestigious UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship which he holds as a joint appointment between the School of Chemistry and the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Leeds.

Read Richard’s Emerging Investigator article ‘A new order of liquids: polar order in nematic liquid crystals’

How do you feel about Soft Matter as a place to publish research on this topic?

The nascent field of ferroelectric nematics sits at a sort of tricritical point between chemistry, physics and mathematics; Soft Matter cuts right across these scientific disciplines and beyond, and so is a really good fit for this sort of work.

What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment and what do you find most challenging about your research?

Ferroelectric nematics are capable of all sorts of things that no other known state of matter can do, so understandably there is huge excitement about possible applications. We are getting pretty good at developing new materials, but relating the physical properties back to molecular structure is a bit of a black box at the moment.

In your opinion, what are the most important questions to be asked/answered in this field of research?

I think it is fair to say that the discovery of polar order and ferroelectricity in fluids looks to be of the highest significance. Probably the biggest question right now is “how universal is polar ordering, and this new phase of matter?” is it restricted to a few odd molecules, or are we dealing with a more general phenomenon? Right now, evidence points to the latter, which is really important given that there is a big expectation that this discovery will end up in all manner of applications.

Can you share one piece of career-related advice or wisdom with other early career scientists?

Your job is only one part of your life and, in the far distant future, when you retire it’s gone. Make time for the stuff that really matters.

Charles Dhong is currently an Assistant Professor in Materials Science and Biomedical Engineering at University of Delaware. He received a PhD from Johns Hopkins University followed by postdoctoral studies at University of California, San Diego. His research group is interested in measuring or controlling the mechanical forces at biological interfaces. Biological interfaces, ranging from cells to the human sense, are complex because they are soft and patterned. Although they are complex, controlling these biological interfaces are important in a range of applications, including basic biology, cancer detection, and virtual reality for the sense of touch. To achieve these goals, we build devices, perform simulations and modeling, and incorporate new materials including conductive polymers and graphene sensors. He can be found on Twitter @CharlesDhong.

Read Charles’ Emerging Investigator article ‘Controlling fine touch sensations with polymer tacticity and crystallinity’

How do you feel about Soft Matter as a place to publish research on this topic?

As we work on using materials chemistry to control touch, Soft Matter has been an excellent venue for publishing work at the intersection of materials chemistry, interfaces, and human psychology. Although we believe touch has many aspects that are traditional to soft matter mechanics and materials, the inclusion of human subjects and psychophysics requires an appreciation for interdisciplinary research. At the same time, the fundamental and rigorous approaches of research in Soft Matter help ground our work in established adhesion and interfaces science.

What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment and what do you find most challenging about your research?

We are excited to see how many everyday textures and feelings we can create just by changing materials chemistry. With emerging areas of virtual reality, and neglected areas of accessibility aids for people with low vision and blindness, touch still remains an open area of exploration. One of the most challenging parts is that coming from a surface science background, working with human subjects data can be inherently variable. However, replacing human participants with machine mimics often does not replicate key parts of tactile perception. We still need ways to quantify and describe touch in ways that are unbiased, consistent, yet still remain useful.

In your opinion, what are the most important questions to be asked/answered in this field of research?

I think the field is wide open, but I believe an important part of touch is to develop a standard and basis to communicate findings. Right now, unless you physically try the device of another lab, it is difficult to gauge progress. While perception is subjective, other fields like vision research have clearer standards or metrics to compare work. However, touch is inherently difficult because the human finger not only senses touch but is also an active participant in generating stimulus through mechanical forces: How you touch an object changes the forces and tactile stimuli generated.  In other senses, like vision, the eye does not influence the source of stimuli, e.g. a light bulb will emit the same stimuli to any subject.

Can you share one piece of career-related advice or wisdom with other early career scientists?

People say that side projects can suddenly morph into key directions for a lab, and that’s been true for us. Classical areas today often started as brand new niche concepts–maybe as a side project–and most communities are open to new ideas or directions.

Eleonora Secchi is currently the Group Leader of the bioMatter Microfluidics Group at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. She earned a B.A. in Physical Engineering, an M.Sc. in Nuclear Engineering, and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering and Industrial Chemistry from the Polytechnic University of Milan. Her graduate research work focused on developing optical correlation techniques and their application to the study of biological and soft matter systems. From 2014 to 2016, she was a postdoctoral fellow at Ecole Normale Supérieure of Paris, working with Prof. Lyderic Bocquet on the measurement of water flow from a single carbon nanotube, which allowed her to answer a long-debated question on water slippage at the carbon–water interface. She was awarded an ETH Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2016 to join the group of Prof. Roman Stocker at ETH Zurich, where she became interested in biophysics. In 2018, thanks to a Swiss National Science Foundation PRIMA grant, Eleonora started her research group. Her research aims to understand the physical mechanisms influencing the assembly and the behavior of bacterial biofilms.  Her group investigates the environmental factors and the physical mechanisms controlling bacterial transport, surface colonization, and biofilm formation in fluids, focusing on the biofilm matrix — “the dark matter of biofilms”. She exploits the precision afforded by microfluidics, combined with visualization techniques borrowed from soft matter physics, to access biofilm’s microstructure and rheology, with the ultimate goal of linking structural properties to their biological function.

Read Eleonora’s Emerging Investigator article ‘A microfluidic platform for characterizing the structure and rheology of biofilm streamers’

How do you feel about Soft Matter as a place to publish research on this topic?

We presented a work at the interface between biophysics and fluid dynamics, with possible applications to soft matter systems. The Soft Matter readership has the perfect background to appreciate it and find further applications. 

What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment and what do you find most challenging about your research?

Biofilms are bacterial aggregates embedded in a self-secreted polymeric matrix. They contribute to the surge of antibiotic resistance, a “global crisis” according to the UN, and cause costly biofouling and biocorrosion in the industrial sector. Studying the physical principles controlling biofilm assembly and the emergence of their properties can lead to developing novel, universal strategies to prevent and control their formation. I am excited to contribute to this medical and technological challenge while recognizing how ambitious the aim is to find universal physical principles to describe biofilm, the most diverse and widespread lifeform.

In your opinion, what are the most important questions to be asked/answered in this field of research?
Bacteria are capable of assembling a mighty physico-chemical shield to protect themselves and survive harsh environmental conditions, namely the biofilm matrix. The matrix varies greatly in its composition among different bacterial species, but it can generally be described as a polymeric gel with viscoelastic rheology. The field wonders how is the assembly of this gel-like matrix regulated and what are the mechanisms conferring to the matrix its unique physico-chemical properties.