MateriAlZ Seminar: Aparna Baskaran
Friday, April 08, 2022, 11:00 a.m. MST
Aparna Baskaran
Associate Professor, Martin A. Fisher School of Physics
Brandeis University
"Active Matter: Applying the Materials Physics Paradigm to Biology"
Zoom Link | Passcode: 723978
MateriAlZ Seminar website | YouTube | Twitter
Abstract
Active matter is a term that has come to describe diverse systems from flocking animals to the cytoskeleton of a cell. In this talk, I will give an overview of the theoretical paradigm that unifies these diverse systems and discuss some results from minimal models for self-propelled particles and the suspension of cytoskeletal filaments. Then, I will present recent theoretical progress in understanding spontaneous flows in active liquid crystal suspensions.
Bio
Aparna Baskaran received her undergraduate degree from Pondicherry University in 2001 and her Ph.D. from the University of Florida in 2006. She is an associate professor in the Martin A. Fisher School of Physics at Brandeis University, where she has been on the faculty since 2010. Her research centers on understanding theoretical principles that underlie nonequilibrium phenomena in soft materials and physical biology. Aparna's research involves close collaboration with experimentalists and computer simulators to understand and model particular systems, from which she extracts theoretical ideas that transcend the context of their origin and apply to broad classes of nonequilibrium systems. She is a beloved teacher and a passionate exponent of her science.