Soft Matter Blog

Davide received a BSc and MSc degree in Physics from the University of Padova in Italy. He then moved to the University of Warwick where he started a Doctoral Training programme in Complexity Science (2011) followed by a PhD in Physics and Complexity Science under the supervision of Prof Matthew Turner (2012-2015). His PhD thesis “Topological Interactions in Ring Polymers” received the Faculty of Science PhD Thesis Prize from the University of Warwick, the Outstanding PhD Thesis Prize from Springer Publishing Group and the Ian Ward Mcmillan Prize from the Institute of Physics, UK. During his PhD, Davide also created a new shape of pasta, dubbed “anelloni” (from the Italian word “anello” for ring).  In 2016, he moved to Edinburgh where he worked with Prof Davide Marenduzzo and Prof Nick Gilbert on computational models of genome organisation and super-resolution microscopy of chromatin structure (2016-2019). After a short postdoc with Prof Dorothy Buck (Bath) on DNA topology, Davide was awarded a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship (2019) and subsequently a Royal Society University Research Fellowship (2020). In the same year he was awarded an ERC Starting Grant to establish his group on “Topologically Active Polymers”. In 2021, Davide was awarded the Chancellor’s “Rising star” award from the University of Edinburgh and the Early Career Award in Statistical Mechanics and Thermodynamics from the RSC.

Find out more about Davide’s work via:

Group Webpage: https://www2.ph.ed.ac.uk/~dmichiel/index.html

@Dmichiel1 

Read Davide’s Emerging Investigator article http://xlink.rsc.org/?doi=10.1039/D3SM01199B 

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

Soft Matter is becoming the go-to journal for our community. What makes it special is that it is a natural home for both theoretical/computational and experimental papers: it thus acts as a hub to gather diverse contributions that complement each other to advance the field. I am always intrigued and enthusiastic to receive the weekly newsletter and to read through the latest issue of the journal. 

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

I am excited by the fact that the field of polymer physics, a field that is perhaps even more well established than the broader soft matter, is in my opinion undergoing a major revolution. For the past 80 years, most of the community considered polymers as “passive” objects at thermal equilibrium. Recent contacts with other fields, and in particular with the genome organisation and active matter communities, completely changed this view.

I am personally deeply fascinated by how DNA, but also other types of polymeric objects, such as worms, roots, fungal hyphae and bacteria, are clearly escaping the classic rules of polymer physics as they are constantly pushed out-of-equilibrium by agents that can change their topology, morphology, length, motion, etc. In turn, the way these “active polymers” entangle is completely different from their passive counterparts. I believe that the two fields of active matter and polymer physics have just started to touch, and we will see interesting developments in the coming years –especially in terms of experiments — with potentially transformative impact in material science and genome engineering. Additionally, the use of nucleic acids as polymeric building blocks adds a further layer of informational complexity that is not present in “classic” polymer physics, and that I expect will be harnessed in the future to create new smart materials.  

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

I am personally very concerned about our planet and about what we are leaving to future generations.  I believe that the most important question that we should be asking ourselves is “what are the actions that we can implement today in order to create a sustainable ecosystem?”.  

Being at the heart of virtually any complex fluid and material formulation, soft matter has the opportunity to play a major role in this challenge. Thus, I would like to see the soft matter community working together with virtuous companies that are trying to push us away from fossil fuels, reformulate mass consumer products, and find smart and innovative solutions to meet our climate targets.

I believe that if we, as a community, prioritised this objective, we would make a massive difference for the health of the planet and for future generations.

Beyond choices that we can make in terms of scientific questions, I would like to take this opportunity also to call to the community to make some serious choices about the organisation of scientific meetings and international travelling.  As scientists, we ought to “lead by example” and despite the admittedly irreplaceable in person interaction between colleagues and collaborators, I would like to call for the soft matter community to “lead the necessary change” in how the scientific community meets and exchanges ideas. For instance, we could organise fewer but longer meetings during the year or could organise “decentralised” meetings in multiple locations with appropriate A/V technology that allowed to connect to the other sites virtually.  Sometimes I have the impression that the scientific community lives in a bubble, criticising the consumer society and voicing concerns over the climate, and yet not renouncing to jump on an intercontinental flight to go to a conference in an exotic location.       

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

I think I became a much better scientist when I realised that one has to learn from every single attempt at a theory, simulation or experiment. It is often too easy to dismiss a failed attempt as “just didn’t work”; in fact, there is no such a thing as “wasted data”. Every experiment is telling you something either about the problem you want to solve or about the way you are tackling it. You just need to be receptive, accept that mistakes happen, and be open to examine your own (and your students’) work with compassionate, and non-judgemental, criticism.

Ravi Kumar Pujala is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, India. He is currently at Laboratoire de Physique des Solides (LPS) at the University of Paris-Saclay as a Visiting Professor. Before joining IISER Tirupati, he worked as DST INSPIRE Faculty at School of Physics, University of Hyderabad, India (2017-2018). He received his Masters in Physics (2008) and Ph.D. in 2014 from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, on Dispersion Stability, Microstructure and Phase Transition of Anisotropic Nanodiscs. Subsequently, his post-doctoral stints were at (i) IESL/FORTH, Crete, Greece with Prof. George Petekidis’ Group he worked on shear induced crystallization of colloidal hard sphere glasses and (ii) at Utrecht University, Netherlands, with Prof. Alfons van Blaaderen he investigated 3D model active particle systems. His research work involves both basic and applied outcomes of Soft Matter, in that his research group (i) studies physics of soft matter of both passive and active systems and (ii) fabricates new mesostructured materials by self-assembly.  His long-term goal is to develop new functional soft materials with reconfigurable structures at the nano and meso-scales. Ravi’s research accomplishments are well recognized through several awards including Springer Thesis International Award (2014), DST INSPIRE Faculty Award (2016) by Government of India, Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Seal of Excellence for “A High-Quality Project Proposal” by European Commission (2017), Visiting Professor/Researcher at University of Paris-Saclay supported by CNRS, France (2020 and 2023), and two Core Research Grants (CRG) of the SERB, India. He also serves as the Associate Guest Editor and Review Editor of the journal Frontiers in Soft Matter.

Find more about Ravi’s work @PujalaRavi 

Read Ravi’s Emerging Investigator article http://xlink.rsc.org/?doi=10.1039/D3SM00451A 

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

Soft Matter is one of the most revered journals in the field. Since I started my research in understanding the physical principles underlying soft matter, I have regularly followed publications in Soft Matter and have been excited to publish in the journal. Soft Matter provides a rigorous and rapid peer review with constructive feedback on the manuscripts. Soft Matter provides a great forum for the communication of interdisciplinary soft matter research as it focusses on the interface between Chemistry, Physics, Materials Science, Biology and Chemical Engineering. The wide readership from researchers across diverse disciplines makes Soft Matter an important choice to publish our best work.

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

Currently, we are excited about the prospects of identifying and incorporating tiny amounts of nano or microparticles to address the challenges of mechanically weak and easily dissolvable hydrogels in physiological environments. Such systems can be effectively used for diverse applications in biomedicine such as tissue engineering and drug delivery applications. In this regard, we have designed a simple, biocompatible and cost-effective novel thermoresponsive hybrid hydrogels by incorporating very small amounts of paramagnetic nanorods. This system has unique stimuli-responsive characteristics, rheological properties and injectability. However, the most challenging aspect is to develop thermoresponsive magnetic hydrogels for biomedical applications with unique rheological properties, which will expand the horizon of application across diverse fields including that of biomedicine.

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

A crucial question that still requires rigorous understanding is how can we achieve multiple functionalities such as thermoresponsive, biocompatibility, magnetoresponsive, thermally stable and injectability in a single hybrid hydrogel using very low loading of the nanoparticles.

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

Based on my own personal experience and seeing some of my peers, I strongly feel that one needs to be brave and be open-minded to venture into challenging problems and be adept to gain new experiences and forthcoming to seek support. This sets a good platform for both scientific and professional growth. Creating a (i) stimulating environment by investing in challenging problems and (ii) support system to fall back during challenging times,  helps generate a never-say-die attitude, which motivates the entire group. Spending good amount of time with the students in the lab, training them, is a worthy investment. This will allow one to generate a wealth of experience, instead of counting successes and failures.

Jonathan Pham is an Associate Professor in Chemical Engineering with a secondary appointment Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Cincinnati. Prior to joining Cincinnati, he was an Assistant Professor at the University of Kentucky. He received a BS in Materials Science and Engineering from The Ohio State University, and earned a PhD in Polymer Science and Engineering from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he investigated nanoparticle assembly and mechanics. During this time, he was a Chateaubriand fellow at ESPCI-ParisTech studying deformation of microscale helical filaments by microfluidics. Prior to joining Kentucky, he was a Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research working on a range of topics, including cell-surface and liquid-surface interactions. Currently, his group focuses broadly on soft materials and interfaces.

Find more about Jonathan’s work via:

Group webpage  https://sites.google.com/view/phamlab.

@JonTPham

Read Jonathan Pham’s Emerging Investigator article http://xlink.rsc.org/?doi=10.1039/D3SM00470H 

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

Soft Matter is a fantastic place to publish work on all aspects of soft materials, from physics to engineering to chemistry and all areas in between. Our group works broadly in soft materials and interfacial sciences, making Soft Matter a great venue for both reading and publishing. I have found the reviewers to usually be critical and provide great feedback. The journal is well-respected and a leader in the field.

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

Our group works on a range of soft matter topics, and we are currently using confocal microscopy as our main tool to visualize certain processes, like non-homogeneous wetting on swollen polymer networks or capillary bridges on a particle at liquid-liquid interfaces. While there are many advantages of confocal microscopy, there are also many challenges and limitations. For example, visualizing different parts of these materials requires the use of fluorescent dyes. Hence, determining how and when to use dyes appropriately is an interesting problem in itself. Combining confocal microscopy with various in-situ measurements may offer new ways to understand soft material systems.

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

Just remember why you are doing what you are doing. Everyone follows their own path and is motivated by different things, and it’s good to keep that in perspective. For your mental state, it’s great to find people that you can really be yourself around.

Dr. Jiangshui Luo is a Professor at the College of Materials Science & Engineering, Sichuan University in Chengdu, China. He received his bachelor’s, master’s and PhD degrees from Xiamen University, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (ChineseAcademy of Sciences), and KU Leuven, respectively. His research interests include organic salts (e.g. ionic liquids, organic ionic plastic crystals, ionic liquid crystals and ordered crystalline organic salts), proton-conductive deep eutectic solvents, electrolytes, phase change materials, heat transfer fluids and solid-state refrigeration. He is an editorial board member of Journal of Ionic Liquids, a member of the Fuel Cell Engine Branch of the 9th Council of the Chinese Society for Internal Combustion Engines, a member of the Ionic Liquids Professional Committee of the Chemical Industry and Engineering Society of China, and a member of the Hydrogen Energy Professional Committee of the China Renewable Energy Society.

Read Jiangshui Luo’s Emerging Investigator article http://xlink.rsc.org/?doi=10.1039/D3SM00614J 

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

Soft Matter is a wonder place for researchers on soft matter to publish related research work, ranging from different disciplines like chemistry, chemical engineering, materials science, physics and biology.

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

I am most excited about the fascinating world of organic salts (including their materials thermodynamics), especially protic organic ionic plastic crystals (POIPCs) which I proposed some years ago (Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 2013, 1, 2238–2247; Energy & Environmental Science, 2015, 8, 1276–1291; Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 2016, 4, 12241–12252; Communications in Theoretical Physics, 2022, 74, 045502). While POIPCs are emerging soft matter, their in-depth studies like solid state NMR, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and neutron scattering as well as molecular dynamics simulations are rather challenging.

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

In terms of organic salts, I think the most important questions to be asked/answered is their structure-property-function relationship.

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

Long-term dedication to a research direction of what is most interesting for oneself matters.

Saad Bhamla studies biomechanics across species to engineer knowledge and tools that inspire curiosity.  Saad is an assistant professor of biomolecular engineering at Georgia Tech. A self-proclaimed “tinkerer,” his lab is a trove of discoveries and inventions that span biology, physics and engineering. His current projects include studying the hydrodynamics of insect urine, worm blob locomotion and ultra-low-cost devices for global health. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Economist, CNN, Wired, NPR, the Wall Street Journal and more.  Saad is a prolific inventor and his most notable inventions includes a 20-cent paper centrifuge, a 23-cent electroporator, and the 96-cent hearing aid.  Saad’s work is recognised by numerous awards including a NIH R35 Outstanding Investigator Award, NSF CAREER Award, CTL/BP Junior Faculty Teaching Excellence Award, and INDEX: Design to Improve Life Award. Saad is also a National Geographic Explorer and a TED speaker. Newsweek recognized Saad as 1 of 10 Innovators disrupting healthcare.  Saad is a co-founder of Piezo Therapeutics.

Find more about Saad’s work via:

Group website:  The Bhamla Lab (gatech.edu)

@BhamlaLab

Read Saad Bhamla’s Emerging Investigator article http://xlink.rsc.org/?doi=10.1039/D3SM00542A  

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

I value Soft Matter highly; it has been my go-to for publishing significant works since my early days as a Ph.D. student in 2014 (first paper as a Ph.D. was in Soft Matter). The journal fosters visibility and collaboration in the diverse field of soft matter, a reason I have published four papers here and continue to return.

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

I am particularly excited about our exploration of living worms (L. Variegatus and T. Tubifex in collaboration with the Deblais group), as a model to study entangled polymer dynamics, topology, and soft robotics. These organisms assemble into “worm blobs,” active three-dimensional entities that exhibit both solid and liquid properties, dynamically responding to stimuli such as light. This venture into the world of active, polymer-like entities opens up avenues to investigate a range of emergent behaviors, offering a rich experimental platform. The integration of diverse fields and communicating these interdisciplinary findings effectively remain substantial challenges.

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

We are at a juncture where we are redefining principles of soft matter physics, incorporating activity into concepts such as entanglement and polymer rheology. The worm blobs stand as a promising experimental platform, urging us to revisit and potentially reshape the field by probing the physics of out-of-equilibrium polymers, a fascinating area with many questions to explore.

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

I often remind my students to be the best versions of themselves, encouraging them to trust their scientific instincts and not to shy away from hard and seemingly impossible problems. As the saying goes, “The difficult we do immediately; the impossible takes a little longer.”

My research combines experimentation and theory, focusing on a broad spectrum of themes in hydrodynamics, soft and active matter. This includes hydrodynamic singularities in simple and complex fluids, rheology, and the collective behaviours of active matter systems. I received my PhD in 2016 from the University of Bordeaux in France and then worked as a postdoc in the Soft Matter group at the University of Amsterdam. Subsequently, I joined the Unilever Food Innovation Centre in the Netherlands, where I worked as a Marie Curie Fellow on the relationship between the rheology of foodstuffs and consumer perception. Since 2021, I have been leading my research group as part of the Soft Matter group in Amsterdam, where we investigate the physics of active polymers in various situations, and the rich behaviours that emerge from their collective interactions.

Find more about Antoine’s work via:

Group website:  Deb’Lab (deb-lab.com)

@AntoineDeblais

Read Antoine’s Emerging Investigator article http://xlink.rsc.org/?doi=10.1039/D3SM00542A  

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

Soft Matter has established itself as a journal within the realm of soft active matter research, bridging the gap between soft matter physics, chemistry, and biophysics. Given the interdisciplinary nature of our work in collaboration with Saad Bhamla’s group, which explores this innovative class of living particles, we believe that Soft Matter is the ideal platform to disseminate our findings. Our research not only appeals to those in the classical polymer physics community but also captivates the interest of individuals exploring the fascinating intersections of active matter and biophysics. As such, we feel that our contributions will find a receptive and engaged audience among the diverse readership of Soft Matter.

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 currently very excited about our pioneering work introducing these novel living polymer-like particles as an experimental platform for exploring fundamental questions on active polymers. The lack of experimental systems available for active polymers, especially ones available in substantial quantities, makes our research particularly exciting. These living worms exhibit a captivating array of characteristics, and we believe there is still much to uncover in this area.

What we find most challenging about our research is broadening our reach to engage a wider audience of soft matter physicists. While we have demonstrated the suitability of these systems for addressing fundamental questions related to active polymers, expanding our impact and dissemination of findings within the soft matter community remains a current challenge. Nevertheless, we are enthusiastic about the potential to bridge well-established theories for passive polymers with the unique framework provided by these living particles, paving the way for further advancements in our understanding of active polymers.

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

In my opinion, the field of active matter research should prioritize addressing two critical questions. First, understanding how interactions and activities among individual particles lead to emergent behaviours and properties is central not only to our field but also to unravelling the unique characteristics of biological tissues, cells, and life itself. Second, within the domain of active flexible polymer systems, identifying the fundamental principles and mechanisms responsible for emergent behaviours represents a significant yet unanswered question. Particularly the combined role of activity and topology. These questions form the foundation for advancing our comprehension of complex systems in both biological, synthetic and robotics contexts.

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

Here’s a piece of (modest) career-related advice for fellow early-career scientists: foster your creativity and wholeheartedly believe in what you do. With patience and perseverance, your research efforts will yield valuable results over time. Additionally, don’t hesitate to seek guidance and mentorship from more experienced and senior scientists. Their insights, advice, and constructive feedback can be invaluable on your journey. Building these mentorship relationships can provide valuable direction and accelerate your professional growth.

Dr. Scott Tsai is the Director of the Graduate Program in Biomedical Engineering, and a Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at Toronto Metropolitan University. His undergraduate training in Mechanical Engineering is from the University of Toronto, and his masters and PhD degrees in Engineering Sciences are from Harvard University. Dr. Tsai’s laboratory specializes in droplet and bubble microfluidics. His group also collaborates actively with hospital researchers to implement these technologies in medical applications related to lung disease and prostate cancer. Dr. Tsai is a recipient of the United States’ Fulbright Visiting Research Chair Award, Government of Ontario’s Early Career Researcher Award, and Toronto Metropolitan University’s Deans’ Teaching Award. 

Read Scott Tsai’s Emerging Investigator article: http://xlink.rsc.org/?doi=10.1039/D3SM00380A

Find out more about his work via:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottshtsai

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-tsai-2946082b/

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=STD2oDMAAAAJ&hl=en

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

I am excited about the prospects of utilizing nanobubbles as next-generation ultrasound imaging contrast agents and targeted drug delivery vehicles. While microbubbles have already been approved and used as contrast agents, nanobubbles, which are about a thousand times smaller, have unique advantages in a number of applications, and are only beginning to be used in applications in the last few years. One of the most challenging aspects of nanobubble research has been to make nanobubbles that have a consistent size, which we are helping to improve with microfluidics. The most challenging aspects now are to generate the nanobubbles at high concentrations microfluidically. This is difficult to do, but once achieved, enables many more impactful applications. 

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

I think it is important for early career scientists to have a mentor who is established and experienced. There are many complex issues that independent scientists need to navigate, from research funding to campus politics. Most scientists are not trained to deal with these matters, so I have found that having a mentor (who preferably is at the same institution) has been extremely helpful.

Dr. Xueju ‘‘Sophie’’ Wang is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Institute of Materials Science at the University of Connecticut. She obtained her Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2016 and was a postdoctoral scholar at Northwestern University from 2016 to 2018. Her research interests lie in the intersection of active materials, mechanics, and functional structures for applications ranging from soft robotics to flexible electronics. She is the recipient of the NSF CAREER Award, NIH Trailblazer Award, Extreme Mechanics Letters (EML) Young Investigator Award, ACS PMSE Young Investigator Award, and ASME ORR Early Career Award in recognition of her significant contributions to her research field.

Read Xueju Wang’s Emerging Investigator article: http://xlink.rsc.org/?doi=10.1039/D3SM00563A

Find out more about her work via:

Group Website: https://www.wangresearchlab.com/

Twitter: @XuejuW

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

Soft Matter is a well-established journal for reporting significant advances in interdisciplinary soft matter research, especially at the interface between chemistry, materials science, and biology. It is one of my favorite journals because of the rigorous review that helps improve our work and the efficient publication process. In addition, with its broad readership, it offers a great platform to disseminate our research findings and maximize the impact of our work.

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

I am very excited about developing soft, pressure-tolerant ocean sensors and integrating them with soft robots for next-generation ocean exploration. Traditional ocean sensors usually require bulky pressure chambers to protect the electronics from damage in harsh ocean environments. Our developed soft ocean sensors, which are made of metal thin films embedded in soft incompressible materials for monitoring ocean temperature, pressure, and salinity, can eliminate the need for pressure chambers and therefore significantly reduce the power supply and the footprint of the sensor. In addition, it has significantly extended the application of current flexible electronics in the low-pressure regime to large hydrostatic-pressure environments for the first time. The most challenging part of this research is the robustness and reliable operation of the developed sensors in harsh, complicated ocean environments, where pressure tolerance and encapsulation under large hydrostatic pressure and salinity environments are critical.

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

I think developing soft bio-inspired intelligent systems that can integrate sensing, control, and actuation within one system is very important to safely interact and adapt to the surroundings for applications including ocean exploration, search and rescue, and many others. In addition, efficient power supply especially for flexible miniaturized electronics is another important question to answer.

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

One piece of advice that I would like to share is to work on research directions that you are really excited about. Although there may be some potential risks, your interest will really drive you to address the challenges and it would be paid off eventually.