Soft Matter Journal Club (SMJC)
UMass Amherst

A weekly meeting to discuss a publication in the area of soft-condensed-matter physics. Examples of soft matter include colloids, emulsions, polymers, gels, glass, granular media, membranes and other squishy materials. We encourage students to attend and participate in these informal discussions with colleagues and faculty. Attending is a great way to stay current with developments.

Please consider volunteering to lead a discussion. The key step is simply to choose an article; it is not necessary to be an expert in the field or to defend the conclusions of the article.

Time
Mondays at 12:15 for about 1 hour.
Place
Hasbrouck 409
Organizers
Simona Maccarrone and Robert Schroll
Email List
We use an email list to announce journal club meetings. Members can adjust their settings and view the archives here. Join the list by entering your email address:
Fall 2009
Date Discussion Leader Article
Oct. 19 Christian Santangelo Vortexlike Topological Defects in Nematic Colloids: Chiral Colloidal Dimers and 2D Crystals, U. Tkalec, M. Ravnik, S. Žumer, and I. Muševič, PRL 103, 127801 (2009).
Oct. 26 Simona Maccarrone Coacervation of cationic gemini sufactant with weakly charged anionic polyacrylamide, Manli Deng, Meiwen Cao, and Yilin Wang, J Phys Chem B 113, 9436 (2009).
Nov. 2 Hunter King Stomatocyte–discocyte–echinocyte sequence of the human red blood cell: Evidence for the bilayer–couple hypothesis from membrane mechanics, Gerald Lim H. W., Michael Wortis, and Ranjan Mukhopadhyay, PNAS 99, 16766 (2002).
Nov. 9 Ben Gamari Generic Phase Diagram of Active Polar Films, R. Voituriez, J. F. Joanny, and J. Prost, PRL 96, 028102 (2006).
Nov. 16 Greg Grason Mapping vesicle shapes into the phase diagram: A comparison of experiment and theory, H.-G. Döbereiner, E. Evans, M. Kraus, U. Seifert, and M. Wortis, PRE 55, 4458 (1997).
Nov. 23 Kiyotaka Akabori Direct measurement of critical Casimir forces, C. Hertlein, L. Helden, A. Gambassi, S. Dietrich and C. Bechinger, Nature 451, 172 (2008).
Nov. 30 Homin Shin TBA
Dec. 7 Marcelo Dias TBA
Dec. 14 Lee Walsh TBA