Active matter, i.e., internally driven matter fueled by a sustained dissipation of free energy, is ubiquitous in the natural world. Examples range from bird flocks and human crowds to migrating cells and biopolymer gels, including synthetic systems like phoretic colloids and robots. Such active materials exhibit emergent collective phenomena that break cherished conservation laws (of energy, mass, momentum, etc.), and raise natural questions regarding how they can be controlled. I will discuss a few different vignettes on our recent efforts in this direction, highlighting implications for the design of novel metamaterials and biomimetic constructs.






Contact: Silas Alben