Lab News

2022

    • Ethan Zimmerman and Clara Nemzoff have joined our lab. Ethan and Clara will work in problems related to the intermittent motion of jammed particles. Welcome to the lab! (September)
    • Klebert is part of the team that was awarded the NSF MRI grant “Acquisition of a laser scanning confocal microscope with enhanced-resolution, sensitivity, and speed to serve as a regional resource for research and education.” This instrument will enable detailed investigation of droplet dynamics! (August)
    • The summer research program was a success! Ben Stallard presented a talk at the JMU summer research symposium titled “Geometric measurements on compressed, constrained cylindrical shells.” Carrie presented a poster of her research project titled “Foam Coarsening: Molecular and Confinement effects.” Good job Ben and Carrie! (July)
    • Carrie White, a local high school student from Shenandoah Valley Academy, joined our research group for the summer. She will be investigating the coarsening of dry foams in negative curved surfaces. Welcome Carrie! (June)
    • Klebert received a 4-VA mini-grant for the project Dynamics of Constrained Soft Materials for the summer research months (April)
    • Klebert and Dr. Masoud Kaveh were awarded a General Education Program Collaborative Curriculum Development Grant for the proposal Enhancing equity and accessibility by offering College Physics  Laboratory as a hands-on remote lab. This effort will pave the development of a new online laboratory class at JMU (March).
    • Ben Woolven has been accepted on the first round ever of the First Year and Transfer Student Research Experience Program (FYRE) at JMU. Congratulations Ben! (February)

2021

    • Ben Woolven has joined our lab. Now we have not one but two Bens! Ben will work on the coarsening of foam in a curved surface. Welcome Ben! (November)
    • Ben Stallard has joined our lab to work on stress distribution on buckled cylindrical shells using polariscope techniques. Welcome Ben! (September)
    • Jack presented a poster about his summer project “Buckling profile of a constrained cylindrical shell under compression” at the JMU summer symposium. Thank you for your contributions to the lab, Jack. (July)
    • Rose Young and Jack Tressler presented at the JMU Physics and Astronomy virtual Symposium the projects: “Dry foam coarsening on the surface of a pseudosphere” – Young and “Buckling profile of a cylindrical shell under compression”- Jack. Good job! (April)
    • Rose has 3D printed our first version of the pseudosphere. (March)
    • We begin operations using the x-ray machine at the Madison Accelerator Lab under the supervision of Dr. Scottie Pendleton. Jack will be leading this effort taking profile images of the cylindrical shell and coarsening foam in a pseudosphere. (January)

2020

    • Rose Young and Jack Tressler joined our lab. Rose will be working on the coarsening of 2D foams in curved surfaces and Jack will continue the investigation of T1 events in the 2D bubble raft. Welcome both! (September)
    • Nicole received JMU Physics and Astronomy Research Award for her outstanding research career as an undergraduate at JMU. Congratulations, Nicole! (April)
    • Klebert is announced as a recipient of the Roberts Endowment for Faculty Excellence Award. This Provost award recognizes faculty “known as a caring, knowledgeable and collaborative partner in learning with students, and, through partnering, inspire students to believe in themselves, to take risks, to question and to enjoy the process of learning, growth and self-discovery.” (April)
    • Nicole presented a talk at the American Physical Society March Meeting. Even though the meeting was canceled to prevent the Covid-19 spread, Nicole presented her talk in a virtual meeting organized by the community. Great job, Nicole! (March)
    • Klebert traveled to Denmark to begin his research semester with the Dias group. (January)

2019

    • We welcomed a new member of the group: Jon Tammaro. Jon will be involved in the crumpling of thin sheets done in collaboration with the Dias group from Aarhus University in Denmark. (September)
    • Nicole was the recipient of the Taylor/VAS scholarship and presented at the Virginia Academy of Sciences. (May)
    • Nicole presented a poster at the March Meeting of the American Physical Society in Boston. Good job Nicole! (March)
    • We are welcoming three new members of the group: Lily Joyce, who will be working on the rheology of 2D foams; Nathan Brown, who will be working on the coarsening rate of dry foams; and Christopher Eaton who will be working on soft materials. Welcome to all of you! (January)

2018

    • Cassidy Anderson joined our group to work on the mechanics of soft materials. Welcome Cassidy! (October)
    • Nicole presented a sound bite on pattern formation of bucking constrained cylindrical sheets at the VI Virginia Soft Matter workshop, at Virginia Tech. (September)
    • Nicole spent 10 weeks of summer research at Aarhus University in Denmark with our collaborator Dr. Marcelo Dias working on the  crumpling of cylindrical thin sheets. She got lots of nice results which she presented at the JMU Summer Research Symposium. (July)
    • Nathaniel, together with Collum and Colin presented the poster “Measuring Intrinsic Foot Muscle Strength and Activation Using Novel Methodology and EMG Measurements” at the JMU Biosymposium. This research is a collaboration with the Wunderlich lab in Biology and a continuation of Zach’s project on measuring the force of intrinsic foot muscles. Good job guys! (April)
    • Nicole got third place in the JMU Undergraduate Physics Symposium oral presentations! Congratulations, Nicole! (March)
    • Klebert attended the March Meeting in LA and presented a contributed talk on “Attractive and repulsive interactions in joined pairs of floating bubbles,” a work done by former students Nick Hagans, Brian Seymour and collaborators from the Cheng group at Virginia Tech. (March)
    • Madison Mobility collaboration, that our lab is a part of, was awarded seed money from the Madison Trust Fund for the project titled “3D Printing Personalized Prosthetics for Below Knee Amputees.” (February)
    • Nicole participated in the CUWiP at UVa and presented a poster titled: “Properties of thin cylinder surface corrugations during buckling.” (January)

2017

    • We were awarded an scaled up grant from 4VA to support our collaborative project “Smart Surfaces for Tunable Fluid-Structure Interactions” with Dr. Dias. (November)
    • Dan’s paper “Experimental measurement of the angle of repose of a pile of soft frictionless grains” accepted for publication in Granular Matter. Congratulations Dan! (October)
    • Nicole, Nathaniel and Klebert present posters of our collaborative research at the 4-VA Fall Symposium at JMU. (September)
    • Nicole, Nathaniel and Klebert present soundbites at the 5th Virginia Soft Matter hosted for the second time at JMU. (September)
    • Alex joins the lab to work on stability of foams made with complex surfactants, a collaborative project with Dr. Caran and Dr. Seifert. Welcome Alex! (September)
    • Nicole joins the lab to continue to work on her project on smart materials with Prof. Marcelo Dias from Aarhus University in Denmark. Welcome Nicole! (August)
    • Nathaniel and Zach presented at the summer research symposium their research on “Material Properties of Polydimethlysiloxane (PDMS) and its use in characterizing Intrinsic Foot Muscles (IFM).” Great job guys! (July)
    • We were awarded two new collaborative grants: (1) “Characterization of the intrinsic foot muscles using novel elastomer gel deformations and electromyography” with Dr. Wunderlich from Biology and (2) “Novel Multidisciplinary Approach to Combat Pathogenic Bacteria” with Dr. Caran, from Chemistry, and Dr. Seifert, from Biology. (April)
    • Zach and Nick presented talks at the JMU Physics spring symposium. Zach’s presentation won first place! Congratulations Zach! (March)
    • Klebert presented Brian’s research at the March Meeting of the APS in New Orleans. (March)

2016

    • Dan’s paper on “Experimental measurement of the angle of repose of a pile of soft frictionless grains” submitted to publication. (December)
    • Brian and Olivia gave contribute talks at the SESAPS meeting in Charlottesville. (November)
    • Teddy and Zach attended the Fourth Annual Virginia Soft Matter Workshop at VCU . (October)
    • Teddy Chu joined our lab. Welcome Teddy. (October)
    • Johnny Gullette and Jordan Figliola have joined our lab. Welcome both! (August)
    • We moved to a new space – room 2258 (June)
    • We say goodbye to Galen, Reagan, and Aiola who are graduating. We wish you success! (May)
    • Klebert awarded a outreach grant with colleague Anca Constantin from the Madison Trust Fund to continue the successful program “Demystifying the Expert” (May)
    • We welcome Zach (Biology) who is working in the elasticity of PDMS gels for a project in collaboration with Dr. Roshna Wunderlich (Biology JMU). (May)
    • We sadly had to say good by to our graduates: Aiola, Galen and Reagan.
    • Olivia and Brian presented at the annual Physics research symposium. Olivia’s was awarded as the best presentation of the symposium. Congratulations Olivia! What a nice streak for this excellent research! (March)
    • Olivia and Brian presented a poster at the March Meeting of the APS in Baltimore. Pictures here. Olivia’s poster got third place in the GSOFT poster competition: Congratulations! (March)
    • Olivia presented her research at the 2016 APS CUWiP at Old Dominion University/Jefferson Lab. Her poster got first place in the poster competition. Fantastic Olivia! (January)
    • Nick Albright joined our lab to work on the jamming of soft hydrogel particles. Welcome Nick!

2015

    • Aiola Stoja (biotechnology) has joined our lab to wok on foamability of complex structure surfactants. Welcome Aiola!
    • Seth’s paper,  Foams Stabilized by Tricationic Amphiphilic Surfactants, was  accepted for publication at the journal Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects. Congratulations Seth! (pre-print) (September)
    • Galen Richard has joined our lab. Galen will be working on the rheological properties of dense emulsions. (September)
    • Reagan Cronin has joined our lab. Her project will focus on the dynamics of bubble rafts. (September)
    • Jake Parkhouse has joined our lab. He will be working on the stability of foams produced with complex amphiphiles. This research will be done in collaboration with the Caran group from JMU Chemistry dept. (September)
    • Brian Seymour has joined the lab. In his summer research he will be investigating the properties of bubbles floating at an air-water interface. (May)
    • We say good by to Seth, Keely and Dan. Seth is going to the Univ. of Iowa and Keely to Emory University. Dan is applying to graduate programs country wide. We wish you success in your future endeavors! (May)
    • Seth, Keely and Dan presented at the annual Physics research symposium. Seth’s presentation got 2nd place. Congratulations Seth! (March)
    • Seth, and Keely presented a poster at the March Meeting of the APS in San Antonio. Pictures here. (March)
    • Keely presented her research at the 2015 APS CUWiP at the Research Triangle, NC. (January)
    • A paper by Klebert was published this month. Check out here. (January)

2014

    • Seth and Keely presented their research at the 82nd Annual Meeting of the APS Southeastern Section at the University of South Carolina. Good job! (November)
    • Klebert was awarded a 4-VA two year scale-up research award for a collaborative project to probe short-range interactions of interfacial bubbles with the Cheng group at VTech. (October)
    • Klebert was awarded a 4-VA summer mini-grant for a collaborative project to study short-range interactions of interfacial bubbles with the Cheng group at VTech. (June)
    • Klebert presented the research work of Nick Hagans and Christine O’Dea at the 88th ACS Colloids and Surface Science Symposium in Philadelphia. (June)
    • Nic presented a poster at the APS March Meeting. (March)
    • Nic and Dan presented at the Physics symposium. See pictures here. (March)
    • First Soft Matter Workshop at JMU a success! Huge thanks to all lab members involved in the organization of the event. Pictures (February)
    • Seth Heerschap joins our lab. His project will tackle the rheology of shaving cream. Welcome Seth! (January)

2013

    • Keely and Klebert had a blast teaching soft materials for students of Hugh Cassel elementary. The giant bubble was a great hit! See pictures here. (November)
    • Nick Hagans was interviewed about his work in the lab in this article of the Breeze. (November)
    • Olivia has joined our lab. Welcome Olivia! (October)
    • Keely has joined our lab to work on the jamming of soft spheres. Welcome Keely! (September)
    • Thomas joins our lab to work on the jamming of soft spheres. Welcome Thomas. (September)
    • Klebert has been awarded a 4VA mini-grant from the 4-VA consortium. More news related to this project coming up soon. (May)
    • Nic Mirenda joins our lab to work on the emulsion project. Welcome Nic! (May)
    • Nick presents at the 27th National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) University of Wisconsin-La Crosse (April)
    • Klebert and Nick featured in the JMU Physics and Astronomy department video broadcasted at the March Meeting of the APS (March) (see the video here)
    • Dan and Nick present posters at the March meeting of the APS (March) (pictures)
    • Nick gets best presentation award at the JMU Physics Research Symposium (March)
    • Dan and Nick present at the JMU Physics Research Symposium (March)
    • Christine O’Dea and Amanda Haddock join our lab. Welcome Christine and Amanda! (January)

2012

    • Dan Shorts joins our lab. Welcome Dan! (September)
    • Our lab is featured on The Breeze! (September)
    • NSF grant for the purchase of a rheometer awarded to Klebert and colleagues at JMU (August)
    • Nick and Jon present their summer research at the JMU REU symposium (August)
    • Klebert awarded a grant from Research Corporation (May)
    • Anthony accepted in the physics graduate program at the University of Pennsylvania. Congratulations Anthony. Good luck! (May)
    • Anthony and Harry present at the Physics Spring Symposium. Anthony takes the prize for best presentation. Good job Anthony! (March)
    • Anthony presents poster at March meeting of the APS in Boston. (February)
    • Jonathan Iredell joins our lab. Welcome Jon! (January)

2011

    • Anthony presents a talk on the tomography of foam at the 64th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics in Baltimore, Maryland. (November)
    • Klebert presents a talk on the emulsion project at the 78th Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Section of the APS. (October)
    • Our lab is featured on Madison Scholar published in October 18, 2011
    • Klebert presents a poster on Anthony’s work at the Gordon Conference for Soft Matter. (August)
    • Summer research was a success. Congratulations for the good work. Joice, you will be greatly missed! Good luck. (August)
    • Our summer research has begun. Anthony, Harry and Joice will bring their enthusiasm for the summer months. (June)
    • Harry gets our first emulsion image in the confocal microscope. (April)
    • Robbie does a superb job presenting his project on the Undergraduate Physics Research Symposium here at JMU. (March)
    • Harry Hicock joins our group. Welcome Harry! (January)

2010

    • Robert Turner has joined our lab. He will start the soft complex flow project. Welcome Robbie! (November)
    • Nicholas Hagans has joined our lab. Welcome Nick! (October)
    • Anthony Chieco becomes the first member our lab. Welcome Anthony! (September)
    • The Soft Complex Materials Lab opens its doors. (August) (pictures)