Old News
Old but recent'ish
✓ To be added eventually
2017
✓ Paper,
"Theory-based design of sintered granular composites triples three-phase boundary in fuel cells", in which we apply insight from packing of granular matter to improve fuel cell technology, has been published (Phys. Rev. E 96, 052903 (2017)).
✓ Clara Wanjura has joined us as an ERASMUS student for part of her masters. Clara will be working with me and Dr Eiser in the next six months on a theoretical description of the structural organisation of granular matter.
✓ David King started his PhD with me and Dr Eiser. He will be working on extending the statistical mechanics of granular matter to describe dynamic systems with the connectivity formalism.
✓ My student, Shahar Amitai passed his viva with minor corrections. Congratulations Dr Amitai!
✓ Paper
"Reply to comment on "Failure of the Volume Function in Granular Statistical Mechanics and an Alternative Formulation", in which we reply to an interesting comment to our paper on the failure of the volume function in granular statistical mechanics, has been published (Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 039802 (2017))
✓ Paper
"Affine and topological structural entropies in granular statistical mechanics: Explicit calculations and equation of state", identifying different types of structural entropy in granular matter, calculating explicitly expectation values of measurable quantities and deriving an equation of state, has been published (Phys. Rev. E 95b>, 052905 (2017))
✓ Organising an international Symposium (with Mike Cates, Mark Warner and Tom McLeish) 2nd Edwards Symposium: Challenges and Opportunities in Soft Matter , (September 6 - 8) Cambridge, UK
✓ Paper,
"Fundamental structural characteristics of planar granular assemblies: self-organisation and scaling away friction and initial state", showing inherent universality-like behaviour and self-organisation of granular matter, has been published (Phys. Rev. E 95b>, 032905 (2017))
✓ Paper,
"Bending back stress chains and unique behaviour of granular matter in cylindrical geometries", showing stress chains bending backward, has been published (J. Gran. Matt. 19:29b> (2017))
✓ Paper,
"Modifying continuous-time random walks to model finite-size particle diffusion in granular porous media", on diffusion of finite-size particles in porous media, has been published (J. Gran. Matt. 19b>, 1-9 (2017))
Older News
2016
December: First paper (with L. Huang, X. Ran) on active matter appeared:
"Vertical dynamics of a horizontally-oscillating active object in a 2D granular medium"
September: Organising an international Symposium (with Mike Cates and Mark Warner)
Soft Matter - Theoretical and Industrial Challenges, Celebrating the Pioneering Work of Sir Sam Edwards, (September 7 - 9) Cambridge, UK
August: Invited talk at the 3rd International conference on:
Packing: across length scales, (August 29 - September 1) Shanghai, China
August: Organising an International Workshop:
Soft and granular matter in ambient and extreme conditions 2016 (SGMAEC2016), (August 22 - 25) Changsha, Hunan, China
July: Talks in Tsukuba University, Tsukuba and the Yukawa Inst., Kyoto, Japan
April: Our recent highlighted paper in Phys. Rev. Lett. made a bit of
news
March: Invited talk at the American Physical Society (APS) meeting, (March 14 - 18) Baltimore, MD, USA:
"Granular statistical mechanics - Building on the legacy of Sir Sam Edwards" (Abstract)
January: Invited talk at the conference Dynamic Days, (January 7 - 10) Durham, NC, USA:
"Granular statistical mechanics - Status report and future directions"
Older News
2015
Talks at the workshop Soft and granular matter in ambient and extreme conditions 2015, NUDT, Changsha, Hunan, August 31 - September 4:
1. "Advances in Granular statistical mechanics - I";
2. "Advances in Granular statistical mechanics - II"
Talk at the KITPC workshop on Controlled structure formation of soft matter, CAS, Beijing, August 17-21:
"Granular statistical mechanics – Following the legacy of Sir Sam Edwards"
Talks at the 2015 Annual Meeting of Thermodynamic and Statistical Mechanics Education and Research Association of China, Hunan, July 12-15:
1. "Statistical mechanics of athermal systems";
2. "Statistical mechanics of granular, porous and cellular smaterials";
3. "Discussion: Necessary curriculum for physics undergraduates"
Talk in Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, July 7:
"Towards a stress theory for real granular materials"
Organising an International Workshop:
Soft and granular matter in ambient and extreme conditions 2015 (SGMAEC2015), Changsha, Hunan, China, August 31 - September 04
Talks at the EMI2015 conference, June 16:
1. "From local structural characterisation of porous materials to structure-property relations: a systematic approach";
2. "Structural evolution of 2D granular solid under shear deformation"
Talk at the one day "Beijing Soft Matter workshop", April 17:
"A local morphological descriptor of granular materials and its uses"
Appointed "1000-talent plan" expert in College of Science, NUDT, Changsha, China; it came with a nice research award
I have a 2-year Postdoctoral Research Associate position available at the Physics Dept. of NUDT, Changsha, Hunan
2014
Invited talk, Conference on "Avalanches in Functional Materials and Geophysics", Cambridge, UK, December 4-8:
Local structural characterisation and statistical mechanics of porous and cellular media
Seminar on:
Fracture propagation in geo-materials - The single fracture dynamics, in the College of Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China, 24 September
Organising an International Workshop on:
Soft and granular matter in ambient and extreme conditions, Changsha, Hunan, China, 15-18 September
Seminar on:
Structural characterisation and statistical mechanics of granular and porous systems: A systematic method to derive structure-property relation and equations of state, in the Inst. of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, China, 17 July
Seminar on:
Towards a fundamental stress theory for real granular materials, in Beihang University, Beijing, China, 16 July
Appointed a "Distinguished Professor" in NUDT, Changsha, China
Talk, Conference on "Foams and Minimal Surfaces - 12 Years On":
Characterisation and statistical mechanics of disordered foam structures
Talk at the conference:
Imperial College Consortium on Pore-Scale Modelling 13 January, London
Talk at the conference:
Dynamic Systems: From Statistical Mechanics to Engineering Applications 9-10 January, Zurich, Switzerland
Paper published in Phys. Rev. Lett.:
On universal structural characteristics of granular packs, T. Matsushima and R. Blumenfeld, Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 098003 (2014)
Invited to deliver a six-hours lecture series and a research seminar in the
International Winter School and Symposium on Statistical Mechanics and Simulation of Nonlinear Dynamics 3-7 January 2014, Changsha, China
✓ Paper, "Theory-based design of sintered granular composites triples three-phase boundary in fuel cells", in which we apply insight from packing of granular matter to improve fuel cell technology, has been published (Phys. Rev. E 96, 052903 (2017)).
✓ Clara Wanjura has joined us as an ERASMUS student for part of her masters. Clara will be working with me and Dr Eiser in the next six months on a theoretical description of the structural organisation of granular matter.
✓ David King started his PhD with me and Dr Eiser. He will be working on extending the statistical mechanics of granular matter to describe dynamic systems with the connectivity formalism.
✓ My student, Shahar Amitai passed his viva with minor corrections. Congratulations Dr Amitai!
✓ Paper "Reply to comment on "Failure of the Volume Function in Granular Statistical Mechanics and an Alternative Formulation", in which we reply to an interesting comment to our paper on the failure of the volume function in granular statistical mechanics, has been published (Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 039802 (2017))
✓ Paper "Affine and topological structural entropies in granular statistical mechanics: Explicit calculations and equation of state", identifying different types of structural entropy in granular matter, calculating explicitly expectation values of measurable quantities and deriving an equation of state, has been published (Phys. Rev. E 95b>, 052905 (2017))
✓ Organising an international Symposium (with Mike Cates, Mark Warner and Tom McLeish) 2nd Edwards Symposium: Challenges and Opportunities in Soft Matter , (September 6 - 8) Cambridge, UK
✓ Paper, "Fundamental structural characteristics of planar granular assemblies: self-organisation and scaling away friction and initial state", showing inherent universality-like behaviour and self-organisation of granular matter, has been published (Phys. Rev. E 95b>, 032905 (2017))
✓ Paper, "Bending back stress chains and unique behaviour of granular matter in cylindrical geometries", showing stress chains bending backward, has been published (J. Gran. Matt. 19:29b> (2017))
✓ Paper, "Modifying continuous-time random walks to model finite-size particle diffusion in granular porous media", on diffusion of finite-size particles in porous media, has been published (J. Gran. Matt. 19b>, 1-9 (2017))
Older News
2016
December: First paper (with L. Huang, X. Ran) on active matter appeared:
"Vertical dynamics of a horizontally-oscillating active object in a 2D granular medium"
September: Organising an international Symposium (with Mike Cates and Mark Warner)
Soft Matter - Theoretical and Industrial Challenges, Celebrating the Pioneering Work of Sir Sam Edwards, (September 7 - 9) Cambridge, UK
August: Invited talk at the 3rd International conference on:
Packing: across length scales, (August 29 - September 1) Shanghai, China
August: Organising an International Workshop:
Soft and granular matter in ambient and extreme conditions 2016 (SGMAEC2016), (August 22 - 25) Changsha, Hunan, China
July: Talks in Tsukuba University, Tsukuba and the Yukawa Inst., Kyoto, Japan
April: Our recent highlighted paper in Phys. Rev. Lett. made a bit of
news
March: Invited talk at the American Physical Society (APS) meeting, (March 14 - 18) Baltimore, MD, USA:
"Granular statistical mechanics - Building on the legacy of Sir Sam Edwards" (Abstract)
January: Invited talk at the conference Dynamic Days, (January 7 - 10) Durham, NC, USA:
"Granular statistical mechanics - Status report and future directions"
Older News
2015
Talks at the workshop Soft and granular matter in ambient and extreme conditions 2015, NUDT, Changsha, Hunan, August 31 - September 4:
1. "Advances in Granular statistical mechanics - I";
2. "Advances in Granular statistical mechanics - II"
Talk at the KITPC workshop on Controlled structure formation of soft matter, CAS, Beijing, August 17-21:
"Granular statistical mechanics – Following the legacy of Sir Sam Edwards"
Talks at the 2015 Annual Meeting of Thermodynamic and Statistical Mechanics Education and Research Association of China, Hunan, July 12-15:
1. "Statistical mechanics of athermal systems";
2. "Statistical mechanics of granular, porous and cellular smaterials";
3. "Discussion: Necessary curriculum for physics undergraduates"
Talk in Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, July 7:
"Towards a stress theory for real granular materials"
Organising an International Workshop:
Soft and granular matter in ambient and extreme conditions 2015 (SGMAEC2015), Changsha, Hunan, China, August 31 - September 04
Talks at the EMI2015 conference, June 16:
1. "From local structural characterisation of porous materials to structure-property relations: a systematic approach";
2. "Structural evolution of 2D granular solid under shear deformation"
Talk at the one day "Beijing Soft Matter workshop", April 17:
"A local morphological descriptor of granular materials and its uses"
Appointed "1000-talent plan" expert in College of Science, NUDT, Changsha, China; it came with a nice research award
I have a 2-year Postdoctoral Research Associate position available at the Physics Dept. of NUDT, Changsha, Hunan
2014
Invited talk, Conference on "Avalanches in Functional Materials and Geophysics", Cambridge, UK, December 4-8:
Local structural characterisation and statistical mechanics of porous and cellular media
Seminar on:
Fracture propagation in geo-materials - The single fracture dynamics, in the College of Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China, 24 September
Organising an International Workshop on:
Soft and granular matter in ambient and extreme conditions, Changsha, Hunan, China, 15-18 September
Seminar on:
Structural characterisation and statistical mechanics of granular and porous systems: A systematic method to derive structure-property relation and equations of state, in the Inst. of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, China, 17 July
Seminar on:
Towards a fundamental stress theory for real granular materials, in Beihang University, Beijing, China, 16 July
Appointed a "Distinguished Professor" in NUDT, Changsha, China
Talk, Conference on "Foams and Minimal Surfaces - 12 Years On":
Characterisation and statistical mechanics of disordered foam structures
Talk at the conference:
Imperial College Consortium on Pore-Scale Modelling 13 January, London
Talk at the conference:
Dynamic Systems: From Statistical Mechanics to Engineering Applications 9-10 January, Zurich, Switzerland
Paper published in Phys. Rev. Lett.:
On universal structural characteristics of granular packs, T. Matsushima and R. Blumenfeld, Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 098003 (2014)
Invited to deliver a six-hours lecture series and a research seminar in the
International Winter School and Symposium on Statistical Mechanics and Simulation of Nonlinear Dynamics 3-7 January 2014, Changsha, China
Talks at the workshop Soft and granular matter in ambient and extreme conditions 2015, NUDT, Changsha, Hunan, August 31 - September 4:
1. "Advances in Granular statistical mechanics - I";
2. "Advances in Granular statistical mechanics - II"
Talk at the KITPC workshop on Controlled structure formation of soft matter, CAS, Beijing, August 17-21:
"Granular statistical mechanics – Following the legacy of Sir Sam Edwards"
Talks at the 2015 Annual Meeting of Thermodynamic and Statistical Mechanics Education and Research Association of China, Hunan, July 12-15:
1. "Statistical mechanics of athermal systems";
2. "Statistical mechanics of granular, porous and cellular smaterials";
3. "Discussion: Necessary curriculum for physics undergraduates"
Talk in Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, July 7:
"Towards a stress theory for real granular materials"
Organising an International Workshop:
Soft and granular matter in ambient and extreme conditions 2015 (SGMAEC2015), Changsha, Hunan, China, August 31 - September 04
Talks at the EMI2015 conference, June 16:
1. "From local structural characterisation of porous materials to structure-property relations: a systematic approach";
2. "Structural evolution of 2D granular solid under shear deformation"
Talk at the one day "Beijing Soft Matter workshop", April 17:
"A local morphological descriptor of granular materials and its uses"
Appointed "1000-talent plan" expert in College of Science, NUDT, Changsha, China; it came with a nice research award
I have a 2-year Postdoctoral Research Associate position available at the Physics Dept. of NUDT, Changsha, Hunan
2014
Invited talk, Conference on "Avalanches in Functional Materials and Geophysics", Cambridge, UK, December 4-8:
Local structural characterisation and statistical mechanics of porous and cellular media
Seminar on:
Fracture propagation in geo-materials - The single fracture dynamics, in the College of Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China, 24 September
Organising an International Workshop on:
Soft and granular matter in ambient and extreme conditions, Changsha, Hunan, China, 15-18 September
Seminar on:
Structural characterisation and statistical mechanics of granular and porous systems: A systematic method to derive structure-property relation and equations of state, in the Inst. of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, China, 17 July
Seminar on:
Towards a fundamental stress theory for real granular materials, in Beihang University, Beijing, China, 16 July
Appointed a "Distinguished Professor" in NUDT, Changsha, China
Talk, Conference on "Foams and Minimal Surfaces - 12 Years On":
Characterisation and statistical mechanics of disordered foam structures
Talk at the conference:
Imperial College Consortium on Pore-Scale Modelling 13 January, London
Talk at the conference:
Dynamic Systems: From Statistical Mechanics to Engineering Applications 9-10 January, Zurich, Switzerland
Paper published in Phys. Rev. Lett.:
On universal structural characteristics of granular packs, T. Matsushima and R. Blumenfeld, Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 098003 (2014)
Invited to deliver a six-hours lecture series and a research seminar in the
International Winter School and Symposium on Statistical Mechanics and Simulation of Nonlinear Dynamics 3-7 January 2014, Changsha, China