Happy to share our recent preprint on (the absence of) giant number fluctuations in microswimmer suspensions. arxiv.org/abs/2503.18068

Excited to share our new paper in Nature Physics @naturephysics.bsky.social: Cooperative hydrodynamics accompany multicellular-like colonial organization in the unicellular Stentor! How do single-celled organisms benefit from teamwork?

What motivated Sugi Widjaja and Millie Wan to support Penn Engineering Entrepreneurship? The chance to endow a new program offering unparalleled immersion via coursework, mentorship and paid internships: the Widjaja Entrepreneurship Fellows. blog.seas.upenn.edu/investing-in...

In fiscal year 2024, the report found, NIH awarded more than $36.9 billion to researchers, supporting more than 408,000 jobs and generating over $94.5 billion in new economic activity nationwide. news.harvard.edu/gazette/stor...

This was a wonderful collaboration with @phdramoncp.bsky.social and his colleagues, matchmade by @karenedaniels.bsky.social! I am proud to have been a part of this effort.

Join Penn Engineering for the George H. Heilmeier Faculty Award and Lecture featuring awardee Cherie Kagan. She will discuss how colloidal nanocrystals (NCs) act as "artificial atoms" to create advanced materials and devices. events.seas.upenn.edu/event/2024-2...

The Future of Rheology virtual seminar series has extended its submissions deadline. This platform highlights research from students, postdocs, and professionals advancing rheology. Selected speakers will have the opportunity to present at the Annual Meeting for a chance to win prizes!

SoR is sad to announce the passage of 1994 Bingham Medalist Prof Andreas Acrivos. Prof. Acrivos and his numerous students and colleagues have made lasting contributions to rheology theory and practice. A fuller accounting of Prof. Acrivos's career is available at www.rheology.org/SoR/News/InM...

🎉Paper alert! Material-like robotic collectives that mimic life Congrats to the Campàs group at PoL @campaslab.bsky.social, for their new #publication with researchers at @ucsantabarbara.bsky.social published in Science! Read our press release here: physics-of-life.tu-dresden.de/news/2025/02...

Read highlights in this week’s issue of PNAS: We examine how turbulence enhances seagrass wave attenuation along coastlines, analyze the feeding patterns of marine Mediterranean megafauna, and study aerodynamics of flexible flapping-wing flight. In PNAS: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

The Society of Rheology is now accepting proposals for the 2025 Rheology Venture Fund. Past winners include the Student Trivia Night at the SoR meeting, the Soft Matter Kitchen, I am a Rheologist swag, Rheology Comics and others.

@nationalacademies.org released a 2022 report on #carbondioxideremoval (CDR) strategies that assessed the current benefits, risks, and potential for responsible scale-up of six specific ocean-based CDR strategies. ow.ly/jfpX50V1VG5

Make your mark on the next decade of #oceanscience! Find out more about @nationalacademies.org's recommendations for #NSF priorities through 2035 during a webinar from 3-4pm ET on Feb. 20! Registration: events.nationalacademies.org/44451_02-202...

A study finds that male researchers increased their preprint posting rate by 6.4% more than female researchers after the introduction of ChatGPT, highlighting differences in how researchers are adopting generative AI tools. In PNAS Nexus: ow.ly/hkh950V3HFX

The #LAFires are the latest to devastate a community. What if we could design a fire-resistant town? Early strategies are already showing promise. A PNAS Science and Culture: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... #wildfire #CampFire #FireBreak #RestorationEcology #firefighters #ClimateChange

Trace fossils capture ancient biological activity rather than whole-body impressions. A global dataset of trace fossils shows that development of the modern deep-sea ecosystem during the Ordovician Period took a leisurely 100 million years. In PNAS: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Census data from 1980–2020 shows that including undocumented residents in congressional apportionment has not shifted party control of the House or changed the outcome of presidential elections. In PNAS Nexus: academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...

Improving vaccine distribution with network theory and a highly adaptable framework – A team of engineers and medical researchers developed a computationally affordable system for determining COVID-19 vaccination distribution. blog.seas.upenn.edu/who-to-vacci...

How do engineers transform breakthroughs into solutions? Vanessa Chan, Penn Engineering’s inaugural Vice Dean of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, has spent her career answering that question. Read more: blog.seas.upenn.edu/meet-vanessa... #ResponsibleInnovation

Congratulations to John Bassani, Professor Emeritus of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics (MEAM), on receiving the 2025 Society of Engineering Science William Prager Medal. blog.seas.upenn.edu/john-bassani...

Kyle Vining of Penn Engineering and Penn Dental Medicine is studying how the extracellular matrix regulates immune responses. Backed by a $2M NIH grant, his work could pave the way for new cancer and tissue repair therapies. blog.seas.upenn.edu/kyle-vining-...

Penn Engineering faculty members César de la Fuente (@delafuentelab.bsky.social) and Jason Altschuler have been named 2025 Sloan Research Fellows (@sloanfoundation.bsky.social). penntoday.upenn.edu/news/four-pe...

Stronger materials, inspired by nature? Led by Kevin Turner, researchers from @meam-penn.bsky.social and Aarhus University found that adding just the right amount of disorder to a material’s structure boosts toughness by 2.6x. blog.seas.upenn.edu/breaking-the...

Jeffrey Babin’s journey from musician to entrepreneur to educator shapes his teaching at @meam-penn.bsky.social, where he helps students refine ideas and develop innovative, adaptable problem-solving skills. blog.seas.upenn.edu/from-drummer...

🄱🄸🄾🄵🄸🄻🄼 🄱🄸🄾🄿🄷🅈🅂🄸🄲🅂 Fascinating work from Sebastian Gonzalez La Corte, Sujit Data, et al at CalTech on polymer-induced entropic attractions that hinder diffusion and lead bacteria to form long spaghetti-like cables within mucus and biofilms Paper in Science Advances: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

The abstract submission deadline is today (Jan 13th)! So far, we have contributions on topics ranging from microvasculature, cells and tissues to biofilms! Looking forward to a great session on "Living Porous Media"! lnkd.in/eafFBRE9

Interesting findings by Jacob Notbohm's group. Nematic defects may form as a result of spatially coordinated patterns in cell forces and motion. 👉 arxiv.org/abs/2501.04827

A study in Nature Human Behaviour characterizes protein signatures in the blood associated with social isolation and loneliness, demonstrating how these link social isolation and loneliness to an increased risk of disease and mortality. https://go.nature.com/4gLM08p 🧪

Check out this work on Second Law of Thermodynamics without Einstein Relation by Benjamin Sorkin, Haim Diamant, Gil Ariel & Tomer Markovich physics.aps.org/articles/v17...

Happy to be on BlueSky! For my first post, I am excited to share a new collaborative paper combining experiments and simulations, where we used circadian clock proteins to engineer biomaterials with time-programmed self-assembly and disassembly www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Did you catch all of the 2024 issues of the Journal of Rheology? We had some beautiful cover art, with more to come in 2025!

We invite you to submit an abstract to the Interpore 2025 Minisymposium Session on "Biophysics of Living Porous Media" to be held in Albuquerque, New Mexico, May 19-23 2025. The abstract submission deadline is Jan 6th midnight PST (events.interpore.org/event/56/pag...).

An extensive body of work from the National Academies offers trusted, evidence-based advice to help build a stronger, more competitive U.S. economy. Take a look at a collection of our work to build a robust economy.

We are inviting applications for the 2025 Elizabeth Gardner Fellowship targeting early-career physicists from under-represented backgrounds. Please help to spread the word. www.ph.ed.ac.uk/research/res...

Our paper on Majorana quasiparticles in active nematics is out. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

It has been a pleasure to host Prof Chinedum Osuji today for seminar at UW Chemical Engineering. He presented a fascinating walkthrough through brilliant Soft Matter systems involving liquid crystals and polymers. 🧪

The next JNNFM+JoR+RA seminar on Large Amplitude Oscillatory Extension by Simon Haward will take place Wednesday, Dec 11th at 10:00 CET/4:00 EST/1:00PST. Read the abstract here: tinyurl.com/ykmdyru4 and find upcoming seminars: tinyurl.com/284yp9p5 Check your email for the Zoom link to join!

Bacterial rheotaxis is ENHANCED in non-Newtonian fluids! This work is in collaboration with Arnold Mathijssen and Albane Thery. Read more about our experiments and simulations in our new PNAS manuscript at pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... @sorheology.bsky.social @pnas.org

#Caregiving is one of the most universal human experiences, yet stigma and barriers exist within the US workforce for family #caregivers. Our recent report offers recommendations to support and protect family caregivers in #STEMM. Learn more: https://buff.ly/49kS5Wi

Global ocean and climate circulation patterns are influenced by sea surface salinity. A study using satellite data shows a link between river flow and sea surface salinity near large river deltas, particularly in free-flowing tropical rivers. In PNAS: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Nominations are open for Society of Rheology Fellows, recognizing distinguished scientific achievement, technical accomplishment, and/or scholarship in the field of rheology. Service to SoR is also an important component. Unsuccessful nominations will be carried over for 2 years.

Consider nominating a deserving rheologist for the prestigious Society of Rheology Bingham or Metzner awards. The awards will be given at the SoR Annual Meeting in Santa Fe, NM in October 2025.

Rheologists working on space applications and/or low gravity research are encouraged to submit manuscripts to our special issue in the Journal of Rheology by May 31, 2025. Reach out to our guest editors Olfa D'Angelo, Thomas Voigtmann, and Norman Wagner with any questions. #EverythingFlows

abhorring an empty account, check out the recent work Piyush Grover and I published in PRE on bioinspired defect sensing in an active nematic. A big thanks to the community for all the discussions that inspired this work: journals.aps.org/pre/abstract... supported by DOE grant DE-SC0022280

"Authoritative tips for manuscript preparation" #Matter Edward Sargent shares ten tips on writing successful research articles. Open Access www.cell.com/matter/fullt...

10 of the 16 sites set to host the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup could put the participating professional soccer players at risk of extreme heat stress, according to a study published in Scientific Reports. https://go.nature.com/4fOB21p 🧪

I wrote an invited commentary on the soil plastisphere for the InterPore Journal. The nexus of bacteria, biofilms, and microplastics has significant environmental implications with LOTS of unknowns and opportunities. ipjournal.interpore.org/index.php/in...

Save the date! August 26-29, 2025. www.efdc2.com

Second paper from our lab! Led by Mobin Alipour, we show phoretic migration due to solute gradients drastically changes the transport of colloids in porous media, even suppressing the influence of geometric disorder! arxiv.org/abs/2411.14712

If you are into granular material, piles and how granular jets fall and impact on a surface, @ramsudhirsharma.bsky.social got you covered on Sunday morning!