Virginia Tech® home

2021 Discussion Meetings

Center for Soft Matter and Biological Physics Friday Discussion Meetings

Spring 2021

Organizer: Vinh Nguyen

These meetings occur on Fridays from 4:00pm to 5:00pm, Virtual Zoom
(unless otherwise indicated)

January 2021
January 29

Friday 4:00pm
Zoom Link
(slides)

Prof. Uwe Tauber (Physics, Virginia Tech)

"Writing useful referee reports and helpful responses"

Slides: "Juan-Jose Lietor-Santos, Physical Review E (2020)"

Host: Vinh Nguyen

February 2021
February 12

Friday, 4:00pm
Zoom Link
(poster)

Ranit Mukherjee (Mechanical Engineering, Virginia Tech)

"To Jump, or not to Jump, that is the Question"

Host: Vinh Nguyen

February 19

Friday 4:00pm
Zoom Link
(poster)

James Stidham (Physics, Virginia Tech)

"Magnetic Skyrmion Motion in a Channel"

Host: Vinh Nguyen

March 2021
March 5

Friday 4:00pm
Zoom Link

(poster)

APS Practice Talks (Uwe Tauber's Group)

Host: Vinh Nguyen

March 12

Friday, 4:00pm
Zoom Link

(poster)

Prof. Justin Barone (Biological Systems Engineering, Virginia Tech)

"What can Gummy Bears Teach us about Biological Elastomers?"

Host: Vinh Nguyen

April 2021
April 2

Friday 4:00pm
Zoom Link

(poster)

Dr. Sudipta Gupta (Physics, Virginia Tech)

"A Scattering Approach to Self-Assembled BioSoft Materials"

Host: Vinh Nguyen

April 16

Friday 4:00pm
Zoom Link


(poster)

Yisheng Huang (Physics, Virginia Tech)

"Chain Conformations and Phase Separations in Polymer Solutions at Various Polymer-Solvent Interactions"

Host: Vinh Nguyen

April 30

Friday 4:00pm
Zoom Link

(poster)

No Discussion Meeting

Host: Vinh Nguyen

May 2021
May 7

Friday 4:00pm
Zoom Link
(poster)

No Discussion Meeting

Host:

Center for Soft Matter and Biological Physics Friday Discussion Meetings

Summer 2021

Organizer: Vinh Nguyen

These meetings occur on Mondays from 4:00pm to 5:00pm
Virtual Meeting (unless otherwise indicated)

June 2021
June 7

Monday 4:00pm
Zoom Link
(poster)

Dr. James McClure (Advanced Research Computing, Virginia Tech)

"Digital Scavenger Hunt: is the geometry of complex micro-structure unique?"

Host: Vinh Nguyen

June 14

Friday 4:00pm
Joint REU/CSBM Discussion Meeting
Zoom Link
(poster)

Prof. Uwe Tauber (Physics, Virginia Tech)

"How to Write a Paper"

Host: Vinh Nguyen

June 21

Friday 4:00pm
Zoom Link
(poster)

Sean McMahon (Physics, Virginia Tech)

"Mechanical Limitations of Clostridium Perfringens Chains"

Host: Vinh Nguyen

June 28

Friday 4:00pm
Zoom Link
(poster)

Navid Ghaffarzadegan ( Industrial and Systems Engineering, Virginia Tech)

"Epidemic Forecasting: Why Did Most COVID-19 Models Fail"

Host: Vinh Nguyen

July 2021
July 5

Monday 11:00am
Zoom Link
(poster)

Ruslan Mukhamadiarov (Physics, Virginia Tech)

"Critical Dynamics of the Susceptible-Infectious-Recovered (SIR) Model on a Lattice"

Host: Vinh Nguyen

July 12

Monday 3:00pm
Special Time
Zoom Link
(poster)

Dr. Johannes Zierenberg (Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Gottingen and Georg August University )

"Temporal resonance between disease progression and contact patterns shapes epidemic spread"

Host: Vinh Nguyen

July 19

Monday 4:00pm
Zoom Link
(poster)

Yifei Wang (Physics, Virginia Tech)

"Graphene Mid-infrared Photodetectors Based on Blocked Silicon Impurity Bands"

Host: Vinh Nguyen

July 26

Monday 4:00pm
Zoom Link
(poster)

Teshani Kumarage (Physics, Virginia Tech)

"Biophysical effects of Melatonin and Azithromycin on Model Pulmonary Membranes"

Host: Vinh Nguyen

August 2021
August 2

Monday 4:00pm
Zoom Link (poster)

Ronald Dickman (Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil)

“Phase Diagram and Interfacial Instabilities in the Driven Widom-Rowlinson Lattice Gas”

Host: Vinh Nguyen

August 9

Monday 4:00pm
Zoom Link
(poster)

No CSB Discussion Meeting

Host: Vinh Nguyen

August 16

Monday 4:00pm
Zoom Link
(poster)

No CSB Discussion Meeting

Host:

Center for Soft Matter and Biological Physics Friday Discussion Meetings

Fall 2021

Organizer: Vinh Nguyen

These meetings occur on Fridays from 4:00pm to 5:00pm in Robeson 304.
Virtual Meetings (unless otherwise indicated)

September 2021
September 24

Friday 4:00pm
Virtual Meeting
(Zoom Link)

No Discussion Meeting

Host: Vinh Nguyen

October 2021
October 8

Friday 4:00pm
Virtual Meeting
(Zoom Link)
(poster)

No Discussion Meeting

Host: Vin Nguyen

October 15

Friday 4:00pm
Virtual Meeting
(Zoom Link)
(poster)

No Discussion Meeting

Host: Vin Nguyen

October 29

Friday 4:00pm
Virtual Meeting
(Zoom Link)
(poster)

No Discussion Meeting

Host: Vinh Nguyen

November 2021
November 5

Friday 4:00pm
Virtual Meeting
(Zoom Link)
(poster)

Wenya Shu (Physics, Virginia Tech)

“A Bio-chemo-mechanical Multiscale Theory for Mechanosensitive Cell Migration on the Viscoelastic Substrate”

Increasing experimental evidence validates that both the elastic rigidity and viscosity of the extracellular matrix (ECM) significantly affect the mode and rate of cell motility. As for the effect of rigidity, malignant cells rationally switch between durotaxis (migration to stiffer regions) and negative durotaxis (migration to softer regions) during metastasis inside biological tissues. Meanwhile, medium viscosity can modulate the effect of elasticity on cell behaviors. To investigate the mechano-sensing of a mesenchymal cell on a viscoelastic substrate, we formulated a multi-scale bio-chemo-mechanical model for the modeling of a whole cell. The proposed framework takes into account the feedback between the biochemical and bio-mechanical events and integrates the motor-clutch model at the sub-cellular scale with the cell structural analysis at the global level. Our simulated single cell (i) yields a biphasic migration speed profile in response to the ECM stiffness; (ii) can exhibit both durotaxis and negative durotaxis, in either case migrating toward the region with an optimal stiffness from softer and stiffer regions, respectively; (iii) reveals that high viscosity can give rise to cellular migration toward softer regions, preempting stiffness-induced durotaxis. Overall, these findings provide non-trivial new insights into the role of viscosity in durotaxis and pave the way for designing bio-materials that optimize cell migration behaviors.

Host: Vinh Nguyen

November 12

Friday 4:00pm
Virtual Meeting
(Zoom Link)
(poster)

No Discussion Meeting

Host: Vinh Nguyen

November 19

Friday 4:00pm
Virtual Meeting
(Zoom Link)
(poster)

No Discussion Meeting

Host: Vinh Nguyen

December 2021
December 3

Friday 4:00pm
Virtual Meeting
(Zoom Link)
(poster)

Junwen Wang (Physics, Virginia Tech)

"An Analytic Form of the Integrated Lennard-Jones Potential for Thin Rods”

Host: Vinh Nguyen