Liquids and Complex Fluids Group

This is an IOP special interest group, which is a community of IOP members focused on a particular discipline, application or area of interest.

Special interest groups allow members to connect and share knowledge and ideas. The IOP funds groups to deliver a range of activities including events, prizes and bursaries. All of our groups are driven by members.

About the group

As a special interest, member-driven group, we are interested in the structure and dynamics of liquids and complex fluids, from microscopic to mesoscopic and macroscopic length scales. Our work encompasses systems that range from “simple” liquids to complex fluids and soft materials.

These include:

emulsions, suspensions and colloids
gels and foams
polymers and membranes
liquid mixtures and solvation phenomena
interfacial phenomena, confined liquids and wetting
liquid crystals
active matter
crystal growth in liquids and self-assembly from solution
glass transition and arrested states of matter
fluids and glasses under extreme conditions

We also look at their biological counterparts.

We enjoy close links with the:

What the group does

The interdisciplinary liquids and complex fluids field has industrial links to:

pharmacology and healthcare
petroleum and plastics
food
personal care
coatings, formulations, paints and inks
agrochemicals

We use a wide range of analytical, experimental and numerical methods, such as:

elasticity and continuum mechanics
statistical mechanics and non-equilibrium physics
microscopy and particle image velocimetry (PIV)
rheology and microrheology
scattering (light, x-ray, neutron)
numerical methods (e.g. computational fluid dynamics (CFD), particle-based methods and Monte-Carlo methods)

Liquids and complex fluids are poorly addressed in the traditional undergraduate curriculum. We inform postgraduate education, for example, in graduate schools working across disciplines.

We also develop new instrumentation and sophisticated data interpretation tools for work on liquids and complex fluids in UK-supported x-ray and neutron sources.

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Group physics prize

Liquids and Complex Fluids Early Career Award

This award is given biennially to an exceptional scientist, in the early stages of their career, working in the broadly defined area of Liquids and Complex Fluids.

Find out more about the 2024 Liquids and Complex Fluids Early Career Award, including past winners.

Group events

Find events for the Liquids and Complex Fluids Group

Newsletters

Useful links

We strengthen our collaborations with links to:

the Faraday Division of the Royal Society of Chemistry. The interests of many physical and theoretical chemists focus on topics we address.
the Liquids Board of the European Physical Society

Committee and contacts

Chair	Professor Serafim Kalliadasis, FInstP
Secretary	Dr Miguel Angel Duran-Olivencia, MInstP
Treasurer	Dr Sergey Lishchuk, MInstP
Ordinary Member	Professor Saptarshi Basu, FInstP
Ordinary Member	Dr Guido Bolognesi, MInstP
Ordinary Member	Dr Francesco Del Giudice, MInstP
Ordinary Member	Dr Fausto Martelli, FInstP
Ordinary Member	Professor Kostya Trachenko, MInstP

Email: [email protected]