CAP Lecture

Soft Matter: Where Physics Meets Chemistry and Biology

An-Chang Shi

Department of Physics and Astronomy
McMaster University

What do plastics, pharmaceuticals, foodstuff and biomaterials have in common? They are all soft matter! Besides their softness, one of the most intriguing properties of soft matter is their ability to self-assemble into complex structures with ordering over many length scales, or hierarchically ordered structures. Understanding the principles governing the self-assembly of hierarchically structured soft materials is paramount to advanced material technology and, more importantly, to biological organisms because we are the perfect example of complex self-assembly. Traditionally, soft matter is a research area populated by chemists and biologists, emphasizing the synthesis and characterization of these materials. Since middle 70's, many physicists turned their attentions to this important area of research, bringing with them the insights from physics. The infusion of physics ideas into soft matter research has led to many progresses. At the same time, many new physical concepts and ideas emerge from soft matter research. My lecture starts with a brief survey of soft condensed matter and its physical properties, and ends with some of our recent studies in this fascinating research area.