Soft Matter & Molecular Self-assembly

Catalog description

Much of the modern research takes place at the interface of physical and life sciences. Soft matter systems (e.g., emulsions, liquid crystals, gels, colloids) bridge scientific communication across disciplines and produce a unique synergy between theory and experiments. Principles of soft matter are highly visual and easily extended to biological self-assembly and food science. This course provides essential tools to understand the behavior of soft matter at the meso- and micro- scale. This course will also provide representative examples of the latest experimental research with soft matter systems (e.g., DNA, proteins, particle tracking, active matter, and external force field activation). Specialized guest lectures and exposure to open-source software will be featured along the course.