海角论坛

November 3, 2015鈥擜ssociate Professor of recently received a $1 million research grant from the . Blair鈥檚 research project is a collaboration with Pranab Das, a physics professor at Elon University and Blair鈥檚 former undergraduate mentor, and Zvonimir Dogic, of Brandeis University.  

At Georgetown, focuses on soft matter physics, and he is part of the faculty of the . The Templeton grant will fund Blair鈥檚 latest research on the active matter of microtubules.

鈥淎ctive matter consists of an assembly of objects that consumes energy to generate continuous dynamics either propagating in space or oscillating in time. Such matter is ubiquitous in life but has only recently been synthesized and explored,鈥� Blair explained. Through the grant, Blair and his colleagues will create versions of naturally occurring active matter and hope to provide insight in a field that has been dominated by theoretical research.

鈥淎s experimentalists, we will create novel materials, distribute them to peers, train other researchers, and present our results in high-impact publications,鈥� Blair said. 鈥淗aving access to these materials for the first time and bringing to bear innovative exploratory methods, we expect to have a major impact on this nascent field.鈥�