Duke Soft Matter Workshop

The Duke Materials Initiative (DMI) provides a home for a diverse and interdisciplinary science and engineering research community engaged in materials research. The 2021 Annual DMI Symposium is organized by the Duke Soft Matter Center, and is focused on polymer networks. Polymer networks are an important class of materials that are crucial components of diverse technical materials including building materials, automobile tires, biomedical implants and cell culture substrates. Polymer networks are also essential parts of the non-equilibrium "living materials" of biological organisms. In this symposium an international group of leading scientists will highlight cutting-edge research in three sessions covering molecular design principles of polymers, soft active materials in biology, and soft polymer materials in human health. Furthermore, students and postdocs will highlight the broad spectrum of soft matter science in the North Carolina Research Triangle in a fourth session. We look forward to lively discussions in the open discussion at the end of each session and throughout the poster sessions. Organizers: Christoph Schmidt, Shyni Varghese, Michael Rubinstein, Stephen Craig