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SUMMARY:MechE Inaugural Lecture: From Particle Packings to Embryonic Tissu
 es: Understanding Soft and Biological Materials
DTSTART:20240528T120000
DTEND:20240528T130000
DTSTAMP:20260521T042641Z
UID:a2db51bb8f05eed87f38f15ea2c7c3bd576817a08f5d56a846486b20
CATEGORIES:Inaugural lectures - Honorary Lecture
DESCRIPTION:Prof. Sangwoo Kim\, Mechanics of Soft and Biological Matter La
 boratory (MESOBIO)\, Institute of Mechanical Engineering (IGM)\, School of
  Engineering (STI)\, EPFL\nAbstract: Soft materials encompass a broad rang
 e of systems from inert passive materials to biological active materials. 
 Small elastic moduli and complex non-linear behaviors pose significant cha
 llenges in gaining fundamental understanding of these systems. Here\, I wi
 ll demonstrate how the emergent properties of such systems can be understo
 od from inherent interactions between mesoscale structures. In the first p
 art\, I will discuss how embryonic tissues regulate their mechanical state
 s by controlling cellular and sub-cellular properties. Motivated by in-viv
 o experiments\, I developed a general theoretical framework that elucidate
 s how small changes in distinct cellular properties can induce different m
 odes of phase transitions. The model explains that the observed fluid-soli
 d transition during tail elongation of zebrafish embryos is governed by ac
 tivel tension fluctuations. In the second part\, I will discuss how to eff
 iciently construct particle packings at varying packing density and their 
 relations with mechanical properties. By decompressing metastable states o
 f overjammed packings at distinct energy levels\, a continuous range of cr
 itical packing fraction can be systematically accessed. An exceptionally d
 ense particle packing exhibits superior mechanical resilience upon externa
 l deformation\, contrasting marginally stable feature of typical low criti
 cal packing fraction states. These works underscore an importance of mesos
 copic structures in understanding emergent properties of soft and biologic
 al materials.\n\nBiography: Sangwoo Kim is an assistant professor and a he
 ad of Mechanics of Soft and Biological Materials Laboratory (MESOBIO) in t
 he Institute of Mechanical Engineering at École Polytechnique Fédérale 
 de Lausanne (EPFL). He received his undergraduate degree in Mechanical Eng
 ineering and Mathematics from Pohang University of Science and Technology 
 (POSTECH)\, followed by MS and PhD in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics at
  the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he investigated rela
 tions between statistics\, geometry\, and mechanical states in cellular ma
 tters. Before joining EPFL\, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the Dep
 artment of Mechanical Engineering at the University of California\, Santa 
 Barbara\, focused on developing theoretical models of embryonic tissues. H
 is current research focuses on theoretical understanding of biological and
  living systems as well as soft and active materials through principles of
  mechanics and physics.\n\nRegister here.
LOCATION:MED 0 1418 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==MED%200%201418 https://epf
 l.zoom.us/j/61626448592
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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