Page 1 of 1

best exp soft condensed matter?

Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 8:34 pm
by GranularMan
I've been accepted/rejected by most of my schools, and I'm trying to figure out how to decide among those left. Which of the following have the best programs for experimental soft condensed matter? Anyone have a sense for approximate rankings?

Harvard, Chicago, UMass Amherst, Univ. of Penn., Univ. of MD College Park, NYU

Thanks! I'll definitely visit my top picks, but some schools have conflicting visit dates (yes, you, NYU and Penn!).

Re: best exp soft condensed matter?

Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 8:41 pm
by VT
when did u hear from MD?

Re: best exp soft condensed matter?

Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 8:45 pm
by GranularMan
I haven't heard from UMD yet - they said that they would likely start sending out acceptances on Monday.

Re: best exp soft condensed matter?

Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 9:05 pm
by peder
AAh! Another soft-condensed matter experimental physicist!

I can tell you right off the top of my head that University of Pennsyvlania and NYU have great soft condensed matter experimentalists (Heiney at Penn, Chaikin and Pine at NYU). In fact, NYU has been pushing for experimental soft condensed matter physics and it is a big initiative for them...

Otherwise, the list would go Harvard, Maryland, and Chicago. But Harvard's soft condensed matter experimentalists arent necessarily in the physics department, per se.

Re: best exp soft condensed matter?

Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 12:52 am
by calphys
What exactly is 'soft' condensed matter? Fleece? I like fleece.

Re: best exp soft condensed matter?

Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 1:15 am
by VT
I guess, it has more to do with biological systems and/or lower dimensional , may be classical systems. Am I correct peder and other?

Re: best exp soft condensed matter?

Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 10:33 am
by dlenmn
My understanding is that it's condensed matter physics that deals with stuff that's not solid (hence "soft"). Liquid crystals, gels, etc.

Re: best exp soft condensed matter?

Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 10:12 pm
by peder
Soft condensed matter physics is basically the subset of physics that fall outside the realm of "classical" condensed matter physics (semi- and super- conductors, BEC, etc.). So, you're talking about more mesoscopic scale things like colloids, gels, liquid crystals, and things like surface and interfacial physics.