Welcome to the very first annual meeting of the GDR SoPhy: Soft Physics for Hard Materials.

The meeting will take place at ENS de Lyon from June 5^th (Monday) to June 7^th (Wednesday).

Among the topics relevant to the GDR SoPhy, we will address the following ones:

• Synthesis and characterization of elementary building blocks for the synthesis of soft solids serving as precursors
• Control of the organization processes of the elementary building blocks and/or self-assembly
• Use of external fields to texture soft solids - memory effects
• Transformation of a soft solid into a hard material: analysis of the properties inherited from the soft precursor

Invited speakers:

• Annie Colin, ESPCI

"Fluidification de suspensions non-browniennes: rôle de la formulation et rôle des ultrasons"

• Laurence Rozes, LCMCP

"Design or organic-inorganic networks from nano building units: the "hybrid" effect on dynamic properties of polymers"

• Franck Artzner, Institut de Physique de Rennes

"Control of the Hierarchical organization processes between complementary building blocks by irreversible Self-Assembly: a few examples of local and macroscopic rules"

• Damien Montarnal, CP2M

"Sol-gel synthesis of vitrimers with high glass transition temperatures"

• Sophie Senani, SAFRAN Tech

"From Soft matter to hard materials: Applications and Stakes of this transformation for Aeronautical Materials"

 A few practical informations for the meeting:

We have an excellent lineup of invited speakers, and we’ve been able to accept all the contributions submitted. 

The full program is available here, including the abstracts of the talks.

The regular oral presentations will be 20min + 5min for questions. Make sure your talk fits into this timing, otherwise we’ll have to interrupt you mercilessly to respect the timing ! Please provide your slides before your session starts (e.g. during the coffee break before), so that we can upload it on our computer, verify that everything works properly and ensure a smooth timing.

The invited talks are 45min+15min for questions. We will also interrupt you if you attempt talking for too long.

The poster session will take place during lunch break on Tuesday.

Lunch is included on Monday and Tuesday (but not on Wednesday as everyone has their own travel arrangements and timing). There are plenty of options near ENS for your lunch on Wednesday.

There will be a cocktail on site on Monday evening (food included), and probably a dinner all-together at a nearby restaurant Tuesday evening (we’re trying to sort it out, informations coming on the website as soon as possible).

Make your travel arrangements asap if you haven’t done so yet !

Looking forward to seeing you in Lyon next month.

The mission of the "Soft Physics for Hard Materials'' GDR is to gather the French community involved in studying hard materials obtained from soft precursors. This applies to a large number of materials such as cement, porous catalysts supports, and biological or bioinspired materials such as nacre or collagen-based composites involving biomineralization processes. This GDR covers all the stages of the synthesis of hard materials, which often involve complex physical processes associated with the application of internal stimuli (e.g., ice templating, etc.) or external stimuli (e.g., mechanical shear, power ultrasound, etc.) during the shaping of the soft precursor. This GDR will examine the possibility of playing on the structural, mechanical, or functional properties of these precursors to better control their final microstructure and properties in the cured state.

The GDR is led by the Institut Lumière Matière (ILM) and attached to the Institut de Physique (INP) of CNRS.

Registration is open until May 1^st

Contribution submission is open until May 1st

Lyon is a busy, touristic city. We recommend booking your travel and accommodation asap.