Mike

Edwards

A physics-oriented interdisciplinary education is urgently needed to guide young researchers to the point where they can tackle the relevant fundamental questions. SOMATAI is set up to provide just such training by combining two distinct scientific fields: Soft matter science is a well established interdisciplinary field for the bulk investigation of polymers, colloids, and liquid crystals with response amplitude and time to external stimuli as a function of soft matter structure being of special interest. The second highly relevant field is interface science, since nano-structured materials contain a huge area of internal interfaces which have an essential impact on material properties. The application of the soft matter approach to interfaces promises new and deeper understanding of interfacial phenomena. Interfaces of a water phase to a solid, liquid or gaseous second phase are of special interest and a focal point of SOMATAI.