Kickoff Meeting
June 12-13, 2024
Location: University of Pennsylvania
Organizers: John Crocker and Doug Durian
Sponsors: CSLM, LRSM/MRSEC, Dept of Physics & Astronomy
The new Center for Soft and Living Matter at the University of Pennsylvania brings together over 60 faculty and their groups from more than 10 departments across campus in order to facilitate collaborations and to help attract outstanding students and postdocs. To celebrate the formation of the center and Penn’s long history in developing the field, we will hold a two-day kickoff meeting. It will feature a diverse range of exciting speakers and topics, as well as a panel discussion about future directions. We hope you can attend!
Registration is now closed and if you’d like to attend please contact Betsy Zall at bzall@sas.upenn.edu.
Confirmed speakers:
| Rae Robertson Anderson Tommy Angelini Katia Bertoldi Dan Blair Jasna Brujic Paul Chaikin Bulbul Chakraborty Sujit Datta Zvonimir Dogic |
Nikta Fakhri Margaret Gardel Zev Gartner Sharon Glotzer Michael Klein Ching-Yao Lai Cecilia Leal Dov Levine Tom Lubensky |
Lisa Manning Xiaoming Mao Nuris Figueroa Morales Michael Murrell Arvind Murugan Ilya Nemenman Michael Rubinstein Yuhai Tu David Weitz |
Agenda 
| Wednesday, June 12, 2024 | ||
| David Rittenhouse Lab A1 | 8:50 – 9:00 | Opening John Crocker and Doug Durian Welcome to the CSLM at Penn |
| Session 1 | Chair: Doug Durian | |
| 9:00 – 9:25 | Bulbul Chakraborty Universality and scaling in the proximity of jamming |
|
| 9:25 – 9:50 | Ching-Yao Lai Granular Geophysics in the Icy World |
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| 9:50 – 10:15 | Dan Blair Weird Viscosity |
|
| (A1 lobby) | 10:15 – 10:45 | Coffee Break |
| Session 2 | Chair: Andrea Liu | |
| David Rittenhouse Lab A1 | 10:45 – 11:10 | Michael Rubinstein The Loops of Life – Chromatin Conformations and Dynamics |
| 11:10 – 11:35 | Rae Robertson Anderson Bio-powered materials: from topologically-active DNA to circadian colloids |
|
| 11:35 – 12:00 | Cecilia Leal Lipid nanoparticle topology regulates endosomal escape and delivery of RNA to the cytoplasm |
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| Singh Center for Nanotechnology | 12:00 to 1:15 | Poster Session A Box LUNCH |
| Session 3 | Chair: Chinedum Osuji | |
| David Rittenhouse Lab A1 | 1:15 – 1:40 | Cynthia Sung Hierarchical actuation and control for soft robots with programmable compliance |
| 1:40 – 2:05 | Sharon Glotzer The Physics of Flexicles |
|
| 2:05 – 2:30 | Nikta Fakhri The many faces of living chiral crystals |
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| 2:30 – 2:55 | Marc Miskin Microscopic robots with on-board sensors, processors and programmable memory |
|
| (A1 lobby) | 2:55 – 3:25 | Coffee Break |
| David Rittenhouse Lab A1 | Session 4 | Chair: Eleni Katifori |
| 3:25 – 3:50 | Lisa Manning Physical learning near rigidity manifolds in biology and bio-inspired materials |
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| 3:50 – 4:15 | Katia Bertoldi Shell buckling for programmable metafluids |
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| 4:15 – 4:40 | Xiaoming Mao Backscattering-free one-way edge waves in auxetic elastic media |
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| Singh Center for Nanotechnology | 5:00 – 7:00+ | Poster Session B Light fare and refreshments |
| Thursday, June 13, 2024 | ||
| Session 5 | Chair: John Crocker | |
| David Rittenhouse Lab A1 | 9:00 – 9:25 | Zvonimir Dogic Mechanics, assembly and disassembly of colloidosomes |
| 9:25 – 9:50 | Arnold Mathijssen Collective functionalities emerging in active matter |
|
| 9:50 – 10:15 | Jasna Brujic DNA circuits program emulsion self-assembly in time and space |
|
| (A1 lobby) | 10:15 – 10:45 | Coffee Break |
| Session 6 | Chair: Dennis Discher | |
| David Rittenhouse Lab A1 | 10:45 – 11:10 | Margaret Gardel Squishy Matter Controlling Cell Volume |
| 11:10 – 11:35 | Zev Gartner Order from disorder: self-organization in development and disease |
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| 11:35 – 12:00 | Michael Murrell Energetics of cytoskeletal assembly |
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| Singh Center for Nanotechnology | 12:00 to 1:15 | Poster Session C Box LUNCH |
| Session 7 | Chair: Marc Miskin | |
| David Rittenhouse Lab A1 | 1:15 – 1:40 | Sujit Datta Watching microbial life in complex environments |
| 1:40 – 2:05 | Nuris Figueroa Morales Bacteria swimming in anisotropic media: Locomotion strategies in the face of physical constraints. |
|
| 2:05PM to | Panel David Weitz, Paul Chaikin, Dov Levine, Tom Lubensky, Andrea Liu + CSLM postdocs |
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| 2:55 PM | Discussion Title: Soft and Living Matter at Penn, Past and Future |
|
| (A1 lobby) | 2:55 – 3:25 | Coffee Break |
| Session 8 | Chair: Arnold Mathijssen | |
| David Rittenhouse Lab A1 | 3:25 – 3:50 | Ilya Nemenman Signatures of low-dimensional dynamics in high-throughput biological data |
| 3:50 – 4:15 | Arvind Murugan Neural computation through learned phase diagrams |
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| 4:15 – 4:40 | Yuhai Tu Nonequilibrium statistical physics in living systems: The role of energy dissipation for biological functions |
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