{"604985":{"#nid":"604985","#data":{"type":"event","title":"Of Bodies Changed to New Forms","body":[{"value":"\u003Ch3\u003ESchool of Physics Soft Condensed Matter \u0026amp; Physics of Living Systems Seminar: Prof. Timothy\u0026nbsp;Atherton, Tufts University\u003C\/h3\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ESoft matter is a broad class of materials with many examples found in everyday life: foods, crude oil, many biological materials, granular materials, liquid crystals, plastics. All of\u0026nbsp;these are unified by the property that they\u0026#39;re readily deformable because the elastic energy is of the same order of magnitude as the ambient thermal energy. Moreover, they\u0026nbsp;spontaneously assemble into richly ordered structures that respond to many different kinds of external stimuli. Soft materials are therefore ideal candidates for advanced\u0026nbsp;engineering applications including soft, biomimetic robots, self-building machines, shape-shifters, artificial muscles, new high-performance all-optical switches and chemical\u0026nbsp;delivery packages. In each of these, the material must make a dramatic change in shape with an accompanying re-ordering of the material. To optimize the materials and\u0026nbsp;structures, it is necessary to have a detailed understanding of how the microstructure and macroscopic shape co-evolve.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EIn this talk, I will therefore discuss the interactions\u0026nbsp;between order and shape, as well as the role of the dynamics in determining the final state, with examples primarily drawn from my group\u0026#39;s work on liquid crystals and\u0026nbsp;emulsions. To develop the description, we draw upon differential geometry, topology, optimization theory and computer simulations, revealing beautiful and profound\u0026nbsp;connections between mathematics and superficially mundane things in the world immediately around us.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"School of Physics - Soft Condensed Matter Seminar - Prof. Timothy Atherton"}],"uid":"30957","created_gmt":"2018-04-11 21:02:25","changed_gmt":"2018-04-16 14:27:09","author":"Shaun Ashley","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","field_event_time":{"event_time_start":"2018-04-17T17:00:00-04:00","event_time_end":"2018-04-17T18:00:00-04:00","event_time_end_last":"2018-04-17T18:00:00-04:00","gmt_time_start":"2018-04-17 21:00:00","gmt_time_end":"2018-04-17 22:00:00","gmt_time_end_last":"2018-04-17 22:00:00","rrule":null,"timezone":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"groups":[],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"960","name":"physics"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[{"id":"1795","name":"Seminar\/Lecture\/Colloquium"}],"invited_audience":[{"id":"78761","name":"Faculty\/Staff"},{"id":"174045","name":"Graduate students"}],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003Eshaun.ashley@ physics.gatech.edu\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}