Theory Group Lunchtime Seminars
Scheduled seminars are listed below.
Announcements and reminders will be posted to the physics-theory-group-seminar list.
To join this list:
- Sign into your university email account via webmail.
- Click the settings icon along the top icon bar (looks like a cog/gear).
- In the "Search Outlook settings" box type "distribution groups" and click the top search result.
- Under "Distribution groups I belong to" click the icon with two little people and a "+" sign.
- Search for physics-theory-group-seminar and double click on the result.
- Click "join". You will then be added to the email list once approved by a moderator.
To leave this list:
- Sign into your university email account via webmail.
- Click the settings icon along the top icon bar (looks like a cog/gear).
- In the "Search Outlook settings" box type "distribution groups" and click the top search result.
- Under "Distribution groups I belong to" click
physics-theory-group-seminar. - Click the "leave" icon above the list (looks like two people with a minus sign to their bottom right).
[If you are a member of Theory group, you will receive seminar announcements via physics-theory or physics-theory-staff. You do NOT need to subscribe to the above mailing list as well.]
Randy Kamien, UPenn
Topology of Soft Materials
Soft matter, despite its name, is surprisingly robust. Under broad conditions liquid crystals, colloids, and copolymers assemble into complex, refined structures, often stable over large temperature ranges and capable of self-repair and healing. Their elasticity is soft and so it is relatively easy to create long-wavelength distortions, topological defects, and configurations frustrated by conflicting boundary conditions. I will describe how geometric and topological principles can be applied in these systems to tailor complex, tunable and robust self-assembled arrays of defects and colloids in a variety of liquid crystals, ranging from the hierarchical formation of focal conic domains from patterned micro-pillar templates, to novel colloidal assemblages built from Janus washers with hybrid boundary conditions.