PhD project: Active Self-Assembly of Colloidal Structures

Project description

Biological matter is wonderfully complex – it can often flow like a liquid, orient like a liquid crystal, spontaneously move, and produce dynamic structures on multiple scales. These are exciting properties that passive and man-made materials typically do not possess. This project will investigate the dynamics of colloids embedded in active fluids, biological fluids that spontaneously flow due to internal energy. The interdisciplinary basis of this project leverages recent discoveries in the fields of active matter and colloidal liquid crystals to realise otherwise impossible pathways to dynamics self-assembly of mesoscale structures. This project consolidates these three exciting avenues of research.

You will investigate the interactions and dynamics of passive colloids, exploring whether pairs of colloids form self-assembled dimers and investigating whether many small colloids form dynamic structures through novel numerical simulations. Group members work in a collaborative and intradisciplinary environment, and become familiar with cutting-edge modelling techniques over the course of their research.

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