Rheological testing is a key technique that addresses questions and challenges in fundamental physics as well as in applications in food and consumer products, pharmaceuticals, and biotechnology. Rheology on the micron scale, microrheology, bridges the gap between the local, micro-scale properties of soft materials and their macroscopic, bulk mechanical properties (bulk rheology). Scale-dependent rheological characterizations of complex fluids containing microstructures with heterogeneous nature are important but challenging. A variety of experimental techniques (both conventional and more recent coupled with microfluidics) have been developed to advance the field by combining micro-tracking, -manipulation and -fluidics. These enabling approaches and applications will be the focus of the proposed workshop.

This workshop aims to provide a singular opportunity for the most prominent researchers in microrheology and microfluidics to: (a) discuss the most recent development and new aspects of microrheology research that covers both linear and nonlinear microrheology, coupled with microfluidics; (b) participate in a panel discussion on the challenges, opportunities, and barriers to develop scale-dependent rheological techniques and related new instruments; (c) build synergy and initiate collaborations between OIST and world experts; (d) showcase interdisciplinary research activities of OIST, and target potential postdoc and graduate student recruitments. The workshop aims to address important scientific discoveries and advances in a broad range of scale-dependent rheological techniques relevant to imaging and microfluidics, with applications in inkjet printing, renewable energy, flow in porous media and biotechnology. These goals will be accomplished through 3 days of talks and informal discussions.

• Professor Amy Shen (OIST, Japan)
• Professor Frank Scheffold (University of Fribourg, Switzerland)
   

Visit the workshop website for more details.