Soft Matter Composite
Coordinator : Stephan Förster
UCLouvain coordinator : Evelyne van Ruymbeke (BSMA)
Softcomp was born as a Network of Excellence (NoE) supported by the EU aiming to establish a knowledge base for an intelligent design of functional and nanoscale soft matter composites. From December 2009 it has a durable structure organized as a Consortium, which is self-financed by the partners.
The Network of Excellence (NoE) SoftComp aims to establish a knowledge base for an intelligent design of functional and nanoscale soft matter composites. It will do so in overcoming the present 2-fold fragmentation of this important field for the development of new materials at the interface of non-living and living matter where the delicate principles of self-organisation in polymeric, surfactant and colloidal matter are ubiquitous.
At present the field is fragmented along the disciplinary lines of theoretical and experimental physics, computer simulation, chemistry and applied biology. On the other hand we are witnessing another fragmentation following the material structures themselves in terms of polymers, colloids, surfactants, membranes and biopolymers.
