In soft materials such as micron-sized colloids in suspension, the importance of thermal fluctuations and Brownian motion allows an efficient sampling of configuration space, giving rise to a rich diversity of equilibrium self-assembled structures with varying degrees of order.

In our research group, we wish to expand our understanding of collective processes to dynamical regimes where time-dependent energy injection and long-ranged hydrodynamic interactions compete with microscopic interactions and give rise to complex, emergent dynamical structures.

The long-term goal of our program is to make soft materials that, like biological organisms, consume energy, live out of equilibrium, and exhibit hierarchical, multi-level function.

“Tunable hydrodynamics: A field-frequency phase diagram of a non-equilibrium order-to-disorder transition”, Somayeh Khajehpour Tadavani, Anand Yethiraj, Soft Matter, 13, 7412 (2017).

in St. John’s, Newfoundland Labrador

St. John’s is on the east coast of the island of Newfoundland, in the north-west Atlantic ocean.

Our work takes place on the land of the Beothuk. Situated in Newfoundland & Labrador, we acknowledge the cultures of the Beothuk, Mi’kmaq, Innu and Inuit.