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| News & Events |
SoftComp Annual Meeting - 17-20/05/2010
17-20 May 2010
The SoftComp Annual Meeting will be held in Palermo, Italy, from 17 to 20 May 2010.
There the following events will take place:
- Plenary lectures
- Network Area meetings
- Research Platform meetings
- Joint Industry-Academic sessions
- Discussion time
- Planning of future collaborations and work
- SoftComp Network Governing Board 06 meeting
- SoftComp Network Coordination Committee 24 meeting
This is the main SoftComp event.
SoftComp contributes for full lodging and subsistence costs for up to a maximum of 4 person per group.
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SOFTCOMP - DYNACOP Workshop, 12/04/2010
"New Trends in Polymer Rheology: Complex architectures and Complex Environments"
April 12-14, 2010
Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC)
San Sebastián, Spain
Polymer materials are evolving from more or less simple liner polymer systems towards multi-component and nano-structured systems, involving in many cases polymers with complex architectures as well. The idea of the workshop is to discuss the impact of this complexity on the rheological concepts and theories. New theoretical approaches and simulations will be revised at the light of recent experimental results from both macroscopic and microscopic (molecular) experimental techniques.
In connection with the European Network of Excellence, SoftComp and with the Marie Curie Action, DYNACOP, this workshop is now being organized by Professor Juan Colmenero and by Professor Dieter Richter - general coordinator of SoftComp. The workshop will take place in the Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC), San Sebastián, Spain. In the spirit of this type of workshops the number of participants will be limited to about 60 and there will be only invited lectures (see below) and oral contributions (of the order of 20).
The meeting will start on April 12 at the lunchtime, and will end on April 14 (evening). On the other hand, this workshop will be followed by one-day-DYNACOP-meeting (April 15) restricted to those people participating in that project. In addition, there will also be a "Training Session" mainly dedicated to students on April 12 in the morning. There will be two 90-min lectures, one about neutron scattering methods and the other to broadband dielectric spectroscopy.
The registration for this workshop is now open and the deadline is March 15, 2010.
Please click here to download the registration form.
Please click here to download additional information.
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AERC 2010 6th Annual European Rheology Conference 07/04/2010
The 6th Annual European Rheology Conference will take in Göteborg, Sweden, April 07-09, 2010.
We would like to draw your attention to the Dispersion Rheology session that we organize, and invite you to submit an abstract.
We aim at soliciting experimental and theoretical/simulation contributions dealing with colloidal suspensions, soft glassy materials, slurries, cement and mortars, polymer-colloid mixtures, and gels.
The session will address important problems at the interface between microstructure, rheology, colloidal hydrodynamics and technological applications.
The deadlines for abstract submission are December 3, 2009 (oral presentation) and December 10, 2009 (posters)
Please submit your abstract throught the AERC 2010 website
We are looking forward to seeing you in Göteborg.
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AERC 2010 website |
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Complex Fluid-Fluid Interfaces 25/02/2010
Thursday 25 February 2010
Institute of Physics, London, UK
First Announcement
The self-assembly of spherical particles at liquid-liquid interfaces (both planar and in Pickering emulsions) has proved to be a rich source of new physics. Building on this, recent studies have probed the behaviour of anisotropic or magnetic particles and systems where one or both of the fluids are complex.
Investigations are also underway into the role of interfacial elasticity on bulk and microfluidic flow properties. This one day meeting aims to bring together experimentalists, simulators and theoreticians interested in interfacial trapping and its influence on flow.
Confirmed Speakers:
Tom Russell (UMass Amherst, USA)
Todd Squires (UCSB, USA)
Jean Christophe Loudet (CRPP Bordeaux, France)
Abstract Submission:
We will be accepting abstracts for contributed talks for this meeting.
All submissions will be made online and more information on deadlines and procedures will be available in due course.
Registration:
Registration will be available online and via PDF by early November. Further information will be available in due course.
Scientific Organisers:
Paul Clegg, University of Edinburgh, UK
Jan Vermant, K.U. Leuven, Belgium
For all future information on this meeting please go to and follow the necessary links from the 'Forthcoming Institute Conferences' page.
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Pierre-Gilles De Gennes Winter School, Cytoskeleton Contractility and Motility, 22/02/2010
22-26/02/10
Over the last 15 years, the puzzle of how cells move has been extensively investigated using a variety of experimental approaches, including classic cell biology and biochemistry methods and, more recently, theoretical modelling and physical characterizations. The success of the interface between physics and biology has made this field pioneer in interdisciplinary approaches in cell mechanics and cell movements. However, these new approaches are not yet widely used in specialized laboratories working on cell movements, either in cell biology, biochemistry or physics. Physicists have often too theoretical views far from experiments and reality, biochemists concentrate too much on the molecular scale, and cell biologists are sometimes reluctant to in vitro systems because it is not "real" enough. The goal of the course is to offer participants a state-of-the-art view from each side, with lecturers working with interdisciplinary approaches to cytoskeleton mechanics. All lecturers are well known in this area, and cover approaches from physics to biology. Lectures will address both in vivo and in vitro approaches, and theoretical modeling. Power point presentations of the lectures will be distributed to students at the beginning of the course (and displayed on the course website), so that they can take notes directly on the slides. Existing work will be referenced clearly so that the students can afterwards deepen their knowledge.
For further information please contact: http://www-dsv.cea.fr/pggcargese2010
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The British Society of Rheology - Midwinter Meeting 2009, 14/12/2009
14 - 15/12/09
Details:
The Flow of Soft Matter
The University of Edinburgh
School of Physics and Astronomy
King's Buildings.
The 2009 BSR Midwinter Meeting aims to provide an overview of the current research on the rheology of soft matter - an exciting field in which theory, simulations and experiments meet to explain the flow of complex fluids.
Confirmed speakers and provisional titles:
* Prof. Michael E. Cates, The University of Edinburgh
Shear banding in soft glasses
* Prof. Martin van Hecke, The University of Leiden
Flow of Foams
* Prof. Geoffrey C. Maitland, Imperial College London
Rheology of mixed-shape colloidal gels
Meeting Contact:
Contributions for oral and poster presentations are invited. Please download the abstract template and return it by email by October 2nd to:
Job Thijssen
Further details of the meeting are available via the "BSR meetings" link at the BSR website:
http//www.bsr.org.uk/
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Click on the image to enlarge
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New Phase for SoftComp ... 01/12/2009
As of today, the European Network of Excellence “Soft Matter Composites – An Approach to Nanoscale Functional Materials” – SoftComp, enters a new phase.
With the EU funding coming to 30 November 2009, the SoftComp partners agreed to maintain and finance the network for future activities.
In a new consortium agreement the partners ensured the continuation of SoftComp at least until the end of 2012.
In 2004 29 groups from scientific institutions and leading European companies joined, in order to integrate the multidisciplinary European research in the field of soft condensed matter with the goal, to bring together a critical mass of resources and expertise to provide leadership.
The network created enduring structures such as a common infrastructure serving all members of SoftComp. In addition the network focussed on education and dissemination, generating numerous schools, workshops and conferences. Major scientific results emerged from this, and will stay so also in the future.
Soft matter plays an important role in nearly every aspect of our daily life and soft matter research is a driving force for a broad range of innovation fields.
You can the joint activities of SoftComp explained in the Brochure “Soft Matter Research for Society: The European Network of Excellence SoftComp” | 
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JCNS Workshop 2009, 08/10/2009
"Trends and Perspectives in
Neutron Scattering on Soft Matter", 5 - 8 Oct. 2009, Tutzing
Due to the unique properties of neutrons investigations to reveal structure and dynamics of polymers, colloids, polymer interfaces, composite polymer materials,
biocompatible and bio-mimetic structures, polymer glasses and polymer nanostructures have delivered significant insight into soft matter physics and soft matter molecular structure.
Novel dedicated methods as neutron spin echo spectroscopy or time resolved small angle neutron scattering have delivered unique insight into the understanding of soft matter structures and molecules.
In the present international workshop jointly organized by the Jülich Centre for Neutron Science and the Donostia International Physics Centre on Oct. 5 – 8 2009 and kindly supported by SoftComp Network of Excellence the current status and future trends and possibilities of neutron scattering methods in studying structure and dynamics of soft matter systems will be discussed. Topics addressed
include:
• Novel Trends in Neutron Instrumentation
• Slow Dynamics
• Kinetic Investigations
• Self-assembly
• External Fields and Non-equilibrium
• Surfaces and Interfaces
• Nanocomposites
• Synergies through the Combination of Different Techniques
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*GISANS pattern of a bicontinuous
surfactant microemulsion at a
planar hydrophilic interface.
(courtesy M. Kerscher, JCNS)
Link to Web Page |
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Jülich Soft Matter Days, 13/09/2009
Soft Matter Science has emerged as an independent and interdisciplinary research field bringing together scientists from condensed matter physics, chemistry and biology.
The systems investigated in this field include colloidal dispersions, polymer solutions, -mixtures and -melts, block copolymers, binary and ternary amphiphilic systems (microemulsions), membranes, vesicles and biological macromolecules. While many of these systems have already been investigated for a long period of time, only recently their common features and interactions have come into focus.
These highly complex materials are characterized by structural units with typical length scales ranging from nanometers to micrometers. The experimental and theoretical investigations as well as the understanding of the properties of these materials poses enormous challenges due to their high complexity, the large number of cooperative degrees of freedom, and the large range of relevant length, time and energy scales.
Therefore, we are organizing the workshop Jülich Soft Matter Days 2009, on the physics and chemistry of mesoscopically structured systems. We hope that this workshop will provide a forum to share and discuss the latest advances for all active researchers in this field.
In this years meeting, which as in previous years will take place in the vicinity of Jülich from 10 to 13 November 2009, we intend to focus on:• Biosystems • Colloids • Polymers • Self Assembly • Slow Dynamics
Link to Web Page
Important Dates
15 June 2009 Submission of Abstract
August 2009 2nd Announcement
11 September 2009 Deadline for Registration
10 – 13 November 2009 Jülich Soft Matter Days
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Fourier transform of a shear-induced
pattern in fd-virus suspension
(Coutesy: K. Kang,
Forschungszentrum Jülich, IFF)
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Symposium on Colloid Rheology and Microrheology 14/06/2009
14-19 June 2009
Chairs: William B. Russel, Eric M. Furst, Jan Vermant
13th IACIS International Conference on Surface and Colloid Science
83rd ACS Colloid and Surface Science Symposium
New York City
Abstract deadline January 15, 2009.
Registration opens January 1, 2009
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/iucrc/icscs09/
http://acswebcontent.acs.org/colloid/index.html
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European Research Prize for Jülich Neutron Researcher Dieter Richter 05/05/2009
The 2009 Walter Hälg Prize will be awarded to Professor Dieter Richter, Head of the Jülich Institute of Solid State Research and Vice Director of the Jülich Centre for Neutron Science (JCNS), in recognition of his “coherent work towards understanding the dynamics of polymers and biological macromolecules”. Every two years, the European Neutron Scattering Association (ENSA) awards the Prize to a European scientist for pioneering research in the field of neutron scattering. The Prize is worth around € 6,600 and will be awarded to Richter at the International Conference for Neutron Scattering, which will take place this year from 3 to 7 May in Knoxville in the USA.
Dieter Richter’s work is best known for his seminal contributions to the understanding of the dynamics of polymers on various length and time scales. In his early work the scaling predictions of the Zimm model were verified unambiguously, and relevant deviations from the Rouse model were found indicating the importance of topological constraints (Walter Schottky Award 1987). Later he succeeded to prove the molecular existence of reptation of polymer chains, which was predicted theoretically by the Nobel laureate de Gennes. Further work dealt with the understanding of the glass transition by identifying the relevant dynamic processes such as local motions, vibrations, and relaxation effects. Conveying his polymer dynamics approach to proteins, recently he successfully observed functionally important collective protein motions in space and time. His work also had an impact on industrial applications; in particular, the study of polymer aggregates with crystalline cores has lead to the development and microscopic explanation of the function of new diesel additives, which prevent the formation of large wax crystals in diesel vehicles in winter. Another important exploit was the discovery and molecular understanding of the efficiency boosting effect of amphiphilic polymers in microemulsions, which led to environmentally friendly industrial cleaners (Schrödinger Award 2002). In the course of his scientific work he continuously pushed high-resolution neutron spectroscopy to its limits, culminating in a spin-echo spectrometer reaching the micro-second time scale, which will open new horizons in the study of large macromolecules relevant for biology.
Dieter Richter graduated from the Technical University of Aachen, Germany, in 1977. Afterwards he spent one year as postdoctoral scientist in the group of Gen Shirane at the Brookhaven National Laboratory (USA). From 1979-1984 he held a scientist position at the Research Center Jülich, and from 1985-1989 he was senior scientist at the Institute Laue-Langevin Grenoble where he developed high-resolution neutron spectroscopic techniques. In 1989 he was appointed as a director at the Institute for Solid State Research of the Research Center Jülich, combined with a chair in physical chemistry at University of Münster. He was one of the founders of the European Neutron Scattering Association and its first chairman from 1994-1997
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