The course proposal from last year was (changes for this year in red). "The course aims at providing fundamental knowledge in soft matter physics (broadly defined) to graduate students with interests in physics, chemistry, quantitative life science, mechanical engineering, and biomedical engineering. Soft condensedmatter are distinct from hard condensed matter in that the typical energy scale of the system is comparable to thermal energies, and therefore competition between energy and entropy is important for understanding the system. We will take a physics-based approach, and use major concepts in soft matter physics such as scaling arguments to discuss the structure and behavior of soft materials. Topics covered include: colloids, polymers, liquid crystals, low Reynolds hydrodynamics and interfacial transport, depletion/entropic forces, nanoscale forces that have no atomistic equivalent, realisation of these forces in biology, physics of membranes and biophysics, focusing on modern experimental and computational results. Select research topics in the frontiers of soft matter research will also be presented. The class if co-taught by A. Saric and J. Palacci and will notably entail a computational project with a soft matter scope.
Target group: Everyone
Prerequisites: Statistical Mechanics & thermodynamics.
Basis of physics, and level of comfort with equations.
Evaluation: None
Teaching format: None
ECTS: 6 Year: 2024
Track segment(s):
Elective
Teacher(s):
Andela Saric
Jérémie Palacci
Teaching assistant(s):
- Teacher: Jérémie PALACCI
- Teacher: Andela Saric