Bringing the Soft Matter Community together

A guest article from Daniel Read, Professor of Soft Matter at the University of Leeds and Bragg Centre Soft Matter Theme Lead

Professor Daniel Read presenting at the first annual Soft Matter Community

On Monday 11 May, the Bragg Centre hosted our first annual Soft Matter Community Day, bringing together soft matter researchers from across campus to find out about our latest results, forge new collaborations, and discuss how we can make soft matter at Leeds even better.

Soft matter is one of the Bragg Centre’s six research themes. Its focus spans the characterisation, synthesis, design and modelling of all kinds of soft and squishy materials, as well as their applications, including liquid crystal devices, food structure, biologically-inspired materials and biomolecular structures, lipid vesicles, polymers and plastics, and hydrogels.

As our academic staff and early-career researchers are spread throughout the University, in the Schools of Food Science and Nutrition, Physics and Astronomy, Chemistry, Mathematics, Biology, Computing, Chemical and Process Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Medicine, the Community Day was a welcome opportunity to gather, share and discuss.

In the morning, we heard about exciting new results, mostly presented by early-career researchers. We found out about modelling and measurements on the formation of protein networks; the interaction of enzymes and proteins in oat milk; the complex extensional rheology of dilute mucus; liquid crystal devices for terahertz radiation and measurements of liquid crystals at surfaces; using ultrasound to control polymer crystallisation; and modelling non-linear shear of complex materials.

We also heard from Professor Paul Beales about the opportunities available to us through membership of the Softcomp network.

A lively lunch break gave us chance for networking, with many conversations initiated around our mini posters, which showcased research projects from across the community.

In the afternoon, we held discussion groups, focusing on how we can improve our training and careers support for early-career researchers, and on how Leeds might respond to developments in the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy.

Our challenge now is to continue meeting and working together, and generating even more exciting research, until next year’s Community Day.

Join the soft matter community

If you’re completing research within the soft matter theme, you can join our community by **becoming a Bragg Centre member**. Make sure you select “soft matter” when you register to receive all the latest news and updates from the theme.

Bragg Centre membership is open to anyone working in materials science.