The overall aim of this series of summer schools since 2013 is to offer the participants, mostly advanced graduate students and post-docs, an up-to-date view of contemporary research that links soft matter and biological physics in order to promote understanding of the basic science underlying biological materials and living organisms. This is achieved by assembling outstanding scientists from diverse disciplines who provide mini-courses on their areas of expertise.

The foci of the "2018 Soft Matter Summer School: Soft Matter and Topology" will be on areas including: (1) Classical topological protection; (2) Self-assembled topological phases; (3) Physics of the mitosis spindle; (4) Defects in liquid crystals; (5) Structure and dynamics of long macromolecules (chromosomes).

The 2018 Soft Matter Summer School on “Soft Matter and Topology” will be organized by the Korea Institute of Advanced Study (KIAS), Institute for basic science (IBS/UNIST) and MRL (Materials Research Laboratory, UCSB). The 9 invited speakers will each deliver a 2 x 1.5-hour mini-course on the issue of geometry and topological phases in soft matter. The initial few hours of each mini-course will be devoted to the fundamental, textbook level introduction to basic concepts.

Invited Speakers: 

J. Michael Kosterlitz (Brown Univ.) 

Daniel Needleman (Harvard Univ.) 

William Irvine (Univ. Chicago) 

Alexander Grosberg (New York Univ.) 

Efi Efrati (Weizmann Institute of Science)

Gareth Alexander (Univ. Warwick)

Rony Granek (Ben-Gurion Univ.)

Deborah Fygenson (UC Santa Barbara)

Uri Raviv (Hebrew Univ. Jerusalem)

Oragnizing Committee: 

Changbong Hyeon (KIAS)

Fyl Pincus (UC Santa Barbara)

Hyuk Kyu Pak (IBS, UNIST)

Mahn Won Kim (KIAS)

Myung Chul Choi (KAIST)

Date: July 2 (Mon)- July 6 (Fri), 2018

Venue: Room #1503 KIAS, Seoul, South Korea

* Participants (especially, students and postdocs) are encouraged to present poster during the poster session. For those who wish to give an oral presentation, please specify during the registration process.  Oral presenters will also be selected from the poster presenters. 

Contact: Ms. Kim, Hyemi; hmkim@kias.re.kr