University-related conferences are commonplace in the Triangle, but a new one set for next week in Raleigh may set the bar high in terms of IQ levels.
The International Soft Matter Conference is expected to attract about 600 people to the Raleigh Convention Center, including faculty and students. It runs from Tuesday to Friday with a goal of university research and experts in the soft matter field exchanging ideas and techniques and raising awareness of their work.
Soft matter is a subset of physics that is a relatively new interdisciplinary field of research. It refers to materials that are deformed by thermal fluctuations and external force, ranging from ice and butter to blood and tissue.
The key organizer is conference co-chair Ronit Freeman, a UNC Chapel Hill professor of applied physical sciences and biomedical engineering. Eight other UNC, N.C. State and Duke university professors are on the organizing committee. An international committee that is also helping shape the conference includes researchers from Canada, France, Japan and other nations.
UNC Chapel Hill officials are focused on speeding the transition of academic discoveries into marketing products and services in various industries. Soft matter provides lots of opportunities for applications in various industries including biomedical, electronics, aviation and robotics, according to Freeman, who leads a lab at Chapel Hill.
The previous two annual International Soft Matter Conferences were held in Osaka, Japan, and Poznan, Poland.
Freeman recently helped create the nonprofit Soft Matter Association to facilitate workshops, conferences and summer schools across various professional societies and industries. She has master’s and doctoral degrees from Hebrew University of Jerusalem
