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Designing Dynamic and Non-Equilibrium Materials

Presented by Dr. Ella King

Abstract:
Despite significant advances in synthetic materials design, the complexity of living matter dwarfs what is presently achievable in artificial materials. Biological systems achieve these feats by precisely controlling out-of-equilibrium properties, suggesting that it should be possible to achieve the same, or possibly better, control in synthetic materials. But how do we design complex functional materials without the luxury of billions of years of evolution? I propose a roadmap to address this question composed of two strategies: (1) identifying systems with tunable interactions and (2) developing methods to search the vast design space of these interactions. To implement the second strategy, I introduce a method for materials design that targets dynamic and non-equilibrium functions in self-assembled materials. I then return to the first strategy and discuss the discovery of a novel class of non-equilibrium matter that is primed for design