Simulations of Soft Matter 

Group Leader: Dr Halim Kusumaatmaja
 Welcome to the Kusumaatmaja group based in the Department of Physics at Durham!  We are interested in Theoretical and Computational Soft Matter and Biophysics. Our work is interdisciplinary, lying at the interface between Physics, Chemistry, Engineering, and Biology. Please see our research summary and publications if you want to learn more about our work.

Recent News:    
  • 20/5/2019: Sam Avis (a final year project student) and Halim have contributed to the new release of openLB [www]. Well done Sam for being a co-author of openLB.
  • 20/5/2019: Jack Law's paper on "

    Phase transitions on non-uniform curved surfaces: Coupling between phase and location" with Halim, Jacob Dean and Mark Miller has been submitted for publication. 

  • 16-17/5/2019: Halim is attending the "Droplet Interactions and Surfaces" meeting at the University of Edinburgh. The meeting is part of UKFN SIG activities on Droplet and flow interactions with bio-inspired and smart surfaces.
  • 13-15/5/2019: Halim is attending and giving an invited talk at the "2nd International ICMM Workshop on Mathematical Modelling", University of Loughborough.
  • 10/5/2019: Jack Panter's paper on "The energy landscapes of cylindrical shell buckling" has been submitted for publication. This is joint work between Halim and Jack with Teng Zhang and Junbo Chen from Syracuse University.
  • 29/4/2019: Subkhi and Halim are co-authors in a new submitted paper "Self-propelled droplet transport on shaped-liquid surfaces". This is a joint work with Gaby Launay, Glen McHale, Rodrigo Ledesma and Gary Wells.
  • 15/4/2019: Marianna and Halim are co-authors in a new submitted paper "Wetting boundaries for ternary high density ratio lattice Boltzmann method". This is a joint work with Neeru Baala, Ciro Semprebon and Ilya Karlin.
  • 12/4/2019: Halim gave an invited talk entitled "Modelling Drops on Liquid Infused Surfaces" at the Heraeus meeting on Wetting on Soft or Microstructured Surfaces [www].
  • 10/4/2019: Halim wrote an essay entitled "Interdisciplinary Science: The Case of Soft Matter" for the book Bunga Rampai Kontribusi Ilmuwan Diaspora Dalam Pengembangan Sumber Daya Iptek & Dikti di Indonesia (rough translation: Contribution of Indonesian Diaspora to the Development of Science, Technology and Higher Education in Indonesia) edited by Deden Rukmana and Alan Koropitan [www] (see page 113-118).
  • 8/4/2019: Jack Panter's paper on Multifaceted Design Optimisation for Superomniphobic Surfaces with Yonas Gizaw (P&G) and Halim has been accepted for publication in Science Advances [arXiv].  
  • 29/3/19: Roland Knorr from MPI Colloids and Interfaces and University of Tokyo is visiting our group.
  • 26/3/19: Halim gives an invited seminar at the Department of Physics, University of Exeter.
  • 23/3/19: Together with Kislon Voitchovsky and Margarita Staykova, Halim gave a public talk on soft matter physics as part of Durham University's Saturday Morning Science series [www].
  • 19/3/19: Halim visited Jianping Meng at Daresbury Laboratory and gave an invited talk on ternary lattice Boltzmann method. 
  • 4/2/19: Raymond Christianto has just joined our group as a PhD student. Raymond is part of the newly established Global Challenges Research Fund Centre for Doctoral Training in Durham. 
  • 14/1/19: Halim gave an invited talk at the workshop "Optimal design of complex materials" at the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Cambridge, UK.
  • 17/12/18: Halim attends the UKFN SIG meeting on "Fluid Mechanics of Nanostructured Materials" at the University of Loughborough.
  • 14/12/18: Halim gives an invited talk at the York Centre for Complex Systems Analysis, University of York.
  • 3-7/12/18: Robin Trunk from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology is visiting our group.
  • 28/11/2018: Halim gives an invited seminar at the Fluid Dynamics Research Centre, University of Warwick.
  • 26/11/2018: A new paper on "Unrestrained ESCRT-III drives chromosome fragmentation and micronuclear catastrophe" has been submitted for publication.
  • 21/11/2018: A new paper on "Measuring Bilayer Surface Energy and Interface Curvature in Asymmetric Droplet Interface Bilayers" is published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface. It is a joint work with Nate Barlow, Ali Salehi-Reyhani, Nick Brooks, Laura Barter, Oscar Ces (Imperial College) and Anthony Flemming (Sygenta) [arXiv] [www].
  • 21/11/2018: Halim gives an invited seminar at the School of Physics, University of Bristol.
  • 30/10/2018: Halim gives an invited seminar at the Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Loughborough.
  • 3/10/2018: Halim gave an invited seminar at the School of Mathematics and Physics, University of Lincoln.
  • 18-19/9/2018: Halim gave invited lectures on the lattice Boltzmann method in the summer school on Computational Modeling in Geoscience held in Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia [www].
  • 17/9/2018: Will's paper with Juan Aguilar, Halim and Kislon Voitchovsky on In-situ molecular-level observation of methanol catalysis at the water-graphite interface has been accepted for publication in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces [arXiv][www].
  • 17/9/2018: Halim visited Universitas Padjajaran in Bandung, Indonesia and gave a talk on Liquid Repellent Surfaces [www].
  • 12-13/9/2018: Halim, Ciro Semprebon and Rodrigo Ledesma are organising a workshop on Multiscale Modelling of Wetting Phenomena [www]. This workshop is a UKFN SIG “Droplet and Flow Interactions with Bio-Inspired and Smart Surfaces” event.
  • 29-30/8/18: Halim attended and gave a talk at the UKFN SIG meeting on Fluid Mechanics of Cleaning and Decontamination [www].
  • 26-27/8/18: Prof Haihu Liu from Xi'an Jiaotong University is visiting our group.
  • 20-24/8/18: Kristian Thijssen from Julia Yeomans' group in Oxford is visiting our group.
  • 6-10/8/2018: Martin Bauer from Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg is visiting our group. 
  • 3/8/2018: A new paper on "Inference of complex state transition networks via reconstructed high-dimensional energy landscapes" has been submitted for publication. It is a joint work with Phil Pearce, Aden Forrow, Jörn Dunkel (MIT), Francis Woodhouse (Cambridge) and Ashley Kelly (former summer student). [bioRxiv]
  • 30/7-24/8/2018: George Fearnley, a Durham Physics UG, is doing a summer project in our group.
  • 13/7/2018: Halim is speaking at the BSI Research Showcase event [www].
  • 9/7/2018: Sarah Goodband from SOFI cohort 4 is joining our group as a PhD student. She will work with Halim and Dr Kislon Voitchovsky on liquid infused surfaces. Her project is partially funded by AkzoNobel.
  • 4-5/7/2018: A few of us from the group are attending the SOFI showcase at the University of Edinburgh [www].
  • 28-29/6/2018: Halim gives an invited talk at a UKFN-ECMI workshop on "Nematics at the Meeting Point of Solid Mechanics and Fluid Dynamics: New Perspectives and Challenges" at the University of Bath [www].
  • 25-27/6/2018: Halim gives an invited talk at a CECAM workshop on "Nano-structured soft matter: a synergy of approaches to amphiphilic and block copolymer systems" at the University of Lincoln [www].
  • 25-26/6/2018: Halim is quoted in a couple of online articles from detik.com [1][2].
  • 12/6/2018: Subkhi's paper with Ciro Semprebon and Halim on "Drop dynamics on Liquid Infused Surfaces: The Role of the Lubricant Ridge" has been accepted for publication in Langmuir. [arXiv] [www] 
  • 7/6/2018: Halim will attend the IOP Theory of Condensed Matter Annual Meeting at the University of Warwick.
  • 2-17/6/2018: Irwan Ary Dharmawan from University of Padjajaran is visiting our group. 
  • 24-26/5/2018: Halim gives a plenary talk at the "TIM18 Physics Conference" at Timisoara, Romania [www]
  • 21-22/5/2018: Halim gives an invited talk at a workshop on "Mathematical Modelling: From Bio to Quantum" at ICMM, University of Loughborough [www]. Halim is also a scientific advisory board member for ICMM (Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical Modelling).
  • 15/5/2018: Jack Law's paper with Alex Wong, Mark Miller and Halim on "Nucleation on a sphere: the roles of curvature, confinement and ensemble" has been accepted for publication in Molecular Physics (Special Issue for Daan Frenkel). [arXiv] [www]
  • 14-18/5/18: Halim will attend and give a talk at a workshop on "Modeling and Simulation of Interface Dynamics in Fluids/Solids and Applications" in Singapore [www].
  • 9/5/2017: Moritz's paper with Ciro Semprebon, Ali Mazloomi, Ilya Karlin and Halim on "Ternary free-energy entropic lattice Boltzmann model with high density ratio" has been accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters. [arXiv] [www] 
  • 7/5/2017: Benjamin's paper with Jack Law, Buddho Chakrabarti and Halim on "Dynamic Morphologies and Stability of Droplet Interface Bilayers" has been accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters. [arXiv] [www]
  • 21/4/2018: Halim attended UKFN SIG meeting on "Structural surfaces and liquid/surface interactions" in Edinburgh.
  • 19-23/3/2018: Halim will attend and give a tutorial on Multiphase LBM at "Lattice Boltzmann Methods with openLB Software Lab" in Karlsruhe, Germany. 
  • 26/2/2018: Halim attended the Royal Society's Artificial Cell meeting at Chicheley Hall.
  • 5-16/2/2018: Victor Ambrus from from West University of Timisoara is visiting our group. 
  • 1/2/2018: Peter Pan from National Taiwan University is visiting our group. 
  • 30/1-1/2/2018: Aden Forrow from MIT is visiting our group.
  • 23/1/2018: Our LBM book is in Springer's Top Downloaded New Books in Physics [www].