Author: Ayten Gülce Bayram

Round Table Discussion on Theoretical Models for Active Matter

A screenshot taken during the round table discussion of 16 September 2021.

The fourth round table of the theoretical training took place with the participation of our panelists: Hartmut Löwen, Joakim Stenhammar, Holger Stark and Ramin Golestanian. The organizing ESRs were Ayten Gülce Bayram, Chun-Jen Chen, Jérémie Bertrand, Jesus Manuel Antunez Dominguez, Ojus Satish Bagal, Alireza Khoshzaban and Umar Rauf. The discussion mainly addressed to “Theoretical Models for Active matter”.

The discussion started with how the activity is included in theoretical models and how activity terms change depending on the particles system. It is followed by the theoretical aspects of going from one particle to the many-particle system and the relevant interaction terms in the theoretical models. Next, we mentioned the challenges behind the solvent-particle interaction, especially where we have complex solvents like a viscoelastic solvent. In this regard, our guests pointed out the importance of hydrodynamics. The meeting was concluded with the final remarks of our guests on the discussion that we should keep in mind in our future studies on active matter physics.

Round Table Discussion on: Phoretic Propulsion Mechanism

During the second day of the experimental training, we organised the first round table discussion. The session was chaired by six of the students attending the training: Carolina van Baalen, Danne van Roon, Gülce Bayram, Harshith Bachimanchi, Laura Natali and Sandrine Heijnen.

The topic of the round table was phoretic propulsion mechanisms and we had four panelists – Juliane Simmchen, Frank Cichos, Ivo Buttinoni and Felix Ginot – and a guest speaker, Antoni Homs Corbera. After a brief introduction of the panelists, we had a chance to ask all the questions we collected from the other participants.

The discussion started with the definition of the term “phoresis” and continued with the simulation frameworks for phoretic colloids. It included a brief discussion of the complexity involved in these processes and the typical length scales at which interfacial effects are relevant.

The conclusion was “a common joke at conferences is that the phoresis starts when coffee is about to be served”. The real conclusion was that phoretic interaction needs very large gradients on the macroscopic scale and is hidden by diffusion on a very small scale.

All participants had the possibility to jump in and add upcoming questions. We ended the round table by discussing the possible applications of phoretic colloids, highlighting the environmental aspects like microplastics’ filtration in water.

We thank all the guests and participants for making it a successful discussion moment.

Ayten Gülce Bayram presents her PhD project at the ActiveMatter online meeting, 10 September 2020

The first meeting between all PIs and ESRs meeting in our network took place on 10 September 2020. During this meeting, Ayten Gülce Bayram, ESR from Bilkent University, presented herself and her research project through a short video presentation. If you are curious about how her research studies are going as a first-year doctoral student in ActiveMatter ITN, please have a look at her presentation!

Ayten Gülce BAYRAM, ESR from Bilkent University, presents herself and her research on the modeling crystallization of active colloidal suspensions.