Soft Matter Research Laboratory

The focus of the Soft Matter Research Laboratory is the characterization of soft matter, such as synthetic polymers, biomaterials, gels, foams and emulsions, with the goal of establishing relationships between microstructure and material properties. The experiments carried out in the lab advance development of new processes and materials for applications ranging from plastics packaging to biomedical devices. The laboratory includes both commercial and custom-made instruments to perform novel rheological experiments in both shear and elongational flows. Also included in the laboratory is a custom-made optics setup that allows for novel light scattering to investigate non-classical thermal and mass transport in soft matter.