News: Faculty

Princeton University Press published Soft Matter: Concepts, Phenomena, and Applications by Vincenzo Vitelli, Wim Van Saarlos, and Zorana Zeravcic.

NanoPattern Technologies cofounded by Dmitri Talapin has raised $1.5 million, including a $1 million NSF grant, to expand its work creating commercial quantum dot ink.

The Irvine group created a novel active matter system that can self propel, flock, and form a chiral active phase. Their publication in Nature Physics explains how a suspension of magnetic particles driven to spin at intermediate Reynolds numbers with a rotating magnetic field was able to behave as a synthetic active system.

The annual Physics With A Bang MRSEC open house welcomed 400 visitors of all ages on Dec. 9 to get them excited about science. Attendees explored a hall of interactive demonstrations, toured lab spaces, and watched Heinrich Jaeger and Sidney Nagel’s double act of dazzling science presentations.

The Vitelli and Gardel groups created new models for predicting cell traction forces. Their paper in Cell details how trained neural networks could predict the forces created by complex biochemistry using images of just fluorescent zyxin proteins.

The Jaeger group discovered a new method of observing the behavior of non-Newtonian fluids. Their paper in PNAS shows how measuring the conductance of fluids made with piezoelectric nanoparticles can reveal the interactions of the particles inside.

The Mazziotti group introduced a modified version of density field theory that can better describe molecular electronic behavior. Their publication in Physical Review Letters describes how they integrated two-electron reduced matrix theory to account for interactions between electrons.

The Murugan group found that a DNA system was capable of pattern recognition through the process of self-assembly. Their paper in Nature suggests this may be a pathway for decision-making in biological systems.

The Tian group invented granular hydrogels, a potent new medical technology. Their Nature Chemical Engineering publication describes how they modified hydrogel patch materials to release cell-sized granules that can deliver treatment directly to the cells.