Emerging Soft Matter Excellence Award Session

Presentations

• Diffusiophoresis-enhanced instabilities

  Invited-In-person · Invited

  March 16, 2026, 3:30 PM – March 16, 2026, 4:06 PM

  Publication: [1] Mirfendereski and Gupta, Cell Press 2025 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matt.2025.102513)
  [2] Alessio and Gupta, Science Advances 2023 (https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adj2457)
  [3] Mirfendereski, Bayer and Gupta, under preparation

  Presenters

  • Ankur Gupta

    • University of Colorado, Boulder

  Authors

  • Ankur Gupta

    • University of Colorado, Boulder

  View abstract →

• Capturing stress in motion: Novel photoelastic techniques for high-inertia granular flows

  Oral-In-person

  March 16, 2026, 4:06 PM – March 16, 2026, 4:18 PM

  Presenters

  • Benjamin McMillan

    • Univ of Cambridge

  Authors

  • Benjamin McMillan

    • Univ of Cambridge

  • Stuart Dalziel

    • University of Cambridge

  • Nathalie Vriend

    • Univ of Cambridge

  View abstract →

• Modular Synthesis and Facile Network Formation in Catechol Functionalized Block Copolymers

  Oral-In-person

  March 16, 2026, 4:18 PM – March 16, 2026, 4:30 PM

  Presenters

  • Fahed Albreiki

    • University of California, Los Angeles

  Authors

  • Fahed Albreiki

    • University of California, Los Angeles

  • Samanvaya Srivastava

    • University of California, Los Angeles

  View abstract →

• Colloids with a Twist: Tuning Bulk Mechanical Behavior with Shape-Shifting Helical Colloids

  Oral-In-person

  March 16, 2026, 4:30 PM – March 16, 2026, 4:42 PM

  Presenters

  • Nicholas Cuccia

    • Harvard University

  Authors

  • Nicholas Cuccia

    • Harvard University

  • Daniel Ravicz

    • University of California, Santa Barbara

  • Zvonimir Dogic

    • University of California, Santa Barbara

  View abstract →

• Wave-mediated capillary assembly on a fluid interface

  Oral-In-person

  March 16, 2026, 4:42 PM – March 16, 2026, 4:54 PM

  Presenters

  • Jack-William Barotta

    • Brown University

  Authors

  • Jack-William Barotta

    • Brown University

  • Sarah Nguyen

  • Maisie McLaughlin

  • Daniel Harris

    • Brown University

  View abstract →

• Sculpting Matter with Sound: From Tunable Interactions to Rotational Dynamics in Acoustically Levitated Systems

  Oral-In-person

  March 16, 2026, 4:54 PM – March 16, 2026, 5:06 PM

  Publication: Electrostatics overcome acoustic collapse to assemble, adapt, and activate levitated matter

  Presenters

  • Sue Shi

    • Institute of Science and Technology Austria

  Authors

  • Sue Shi

    • Institute of Science and Technology Austria

  • Galien Grosjean

    • Institute of Science and Technology Austria

  • Scott Waitukaitis

    • Institute of Science and Technology Austria

  View abstract →

• Symmetry and Memory in Driven Disordered Systems

  Oral-In-person

  March 16, 2026, 5:06 PM – March 16, 2026, 5:18 PM

  Publication: Symmetry and Memories in Driven Disordered Systems (https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.11825)

  Presenters

  • Surendra Padamata

    • Pennsylvania State University

  Authors

  • Surendra Padamata

    • Pennsylvania State University

  • Nathan Keim

    • Penn State

  View abstract →

• Influence of Geometric Confinement and Interfacial Forces on Puncture

  Oral-In-person

  March 16, 2026, 5:18 PM – March 16, 2026, 5:30 PM

  Presenters

  • Jennifer Quigley

    • University of Massachusetts Amherst

  Authors

  • Jennifer Quigley

    • University of Massachusetts Amherst

  • Gabriela Lana

    • University of Massachusetts Amherst

  • Shelly Peyton

    • Tufts University

  • Hsu Shwe Yee Naing

    • Polymer Science & Engineering Dept at University of Massachusetts Amherst

  • Alfred Crosby

    • University of Massachusetts Amherst

  View abstract →

• A Proliferating Nematic that Collecitvely Senses an Anisotropic Substrate

  Oral-In-person

  March 16, 2026, 5:30 PM – March 16, 2026, 5:42 PM

  Publication: Preprint: https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.11754
  Submitted manuscript to PRX Life

  Presenters

  • Toshi Parmar

    • University of California, Santa Barbara

  Authors

  • Toshi Parmar

    • University of California, Santa Barbara

  • Fridtjof Brauns

    • Max-Planck-Institut for the Physics of Complex Systems

  • Yimin Luo

    • Yale University

  • M. Cristina Marchetti

    • University of California, Santa Barbara

  View abstract →

• Glioblastoma Brain Tumors Organize as Active Nematic Liquid Crystals with Novel Implications

  Oral-In-person

  March 16, 2026, 5:42 PM – March 16, 2026, 5:54 PM

  Publication: Three-dimensional topological defects and quasi-long-range order in biological liquid crystals. Anna E. Argento... Carles Blanch-Mercader, Pedro R. Lowenstein, et al. bioRxiv 2025.04.14.648711; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.04.14.648711

  Presenters

  • Anna Argento

    • University of Michigan

  Authors

  • Anna Argento

    • University of Michigan

  • Molly West

  • Maria Luisa Varela

  • Quentin Chaboche

  • Molly Rutherford

  • Daiana Perez Visnuk

  • Marta Edwards

  • Gurveer Singh

  • Binyamin Jacoobovitz

  • Daniel Beller

    • Johns Hopkins University

  • Maria Castro

  • Carles Blanch-Mercader

  • Pedro Lowenstein

    • University of Michigan

  View abstract →

• Spin-and-Tumble Particles (STPs): Local Alignment and Collective Mixing in Starfish Embryo Swarms

  Oral-In-person

  March 16, 2026, 5:54 PM – March 16, 2026, 6:06 PM

  Presenters

  • Yuchao Chen

    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  Authors

  • Yuchao Chen

    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  • Shreyas Gokhale

    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  • Alexandru Bacanu

    • Harvard University

  • Tom Burkart

  • Julien Tailleur

    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  • Nikta Fakhri

    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  View abstract →

• Crack front ligament as elastic energy reservoir in fracture of brittle hydrogels

  Oral-In-person

  March 16, 2026, 6:06 PM – March 16, 2026, 6:18 PM

  Publication: Wei, X., & Kolinski, J. M. (2025). Falling through the cracks: energy storage along segmented brittle crack fronts. arXiv preprint arXiv:2507.19406.

  Presenters

  • Xinyue Wei

    • Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne

  Authors

  • Xinyue Wei

    • Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne

  • John Kolinski

    • Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne

  View abstract →

• Bending Cutoff Governs Phononic Band Gaps in Elastic Beam Lattices

  Oral-In-person

  March 16, 2026, 6:18 PM – March 16, 2026, 6:30 PM

  Presenters

  • Kwangmin Lee

    • Johns Hopkins University

  Authors

  • Kwangmin Lee

    • Johns Hopkins University

  • Charles Maher

  • Katherine Newhall

    • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  • Ryan Hurley

    • Johns Hopkins University

  View abstract →