Professor Michael Cates | Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics

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2015-date: Lucasian Professor of Mathematics and Royal Society Research Professor
2007-2015: Professor of Natural Philosophy and Royal Society Research Professor, University of Edinburgh
1995-2007: Professor of Natural Philosophy, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh
1992-1995: University Lecturer, Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge
1989-1992: University Assistant Lecturer, Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge
1988-1989: Royal Society University Research Fellow, Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge
1985-1995: Junior Research Fellow (1985-1989), Teaching Fellow (1990-1995), Trinity College Cambridge

Research

Mike is a member of the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics. He heads the Soft Matter research group. His current research interests include: flow of colloids, polymers, emulsions, gels and other soft materials; shear-thickening and rheology in dense suspensions; dynamics of soft glasses; flow of liquid crystals; general theories of active matter; cellular locomotion; phase ordering in active and passive systems; statistical mechanics of active particles; and numerous other topics. He currently holds an ERC Advanced Grant called ADNeSP: Active and Driven Systems, Nonequilibrium Statistical Physics.

Publications

Autonomous engines driven by active matter: Energetics and design principles

P Pietzonka, É Fodor, C Lohrmann, ME Cates, U Seifert

– arXiv preprint 1905.00373

(2019)

9,

041032

(DOI: 10.1103/physrevx.9.041032)

Hydrodynamically Interrupted Droplet Growth in Scalar Active Matter

R Singh, ME Cates

– Phys Rev Lett

(2019)

123,

148005

(DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.148005)

Dynamic clustering and re-dispersion in concentrated colloid-active gel composites.

G Foffano, JS Lintuvuori, K Stratford, ME Cates, D Marenduzzo

– Soft Matter

(2019)

15,

6896

(DOI: 10.1039/c9sm01249d)

Competing chemical and hydrodynamic interactions in autophoretic colloidal suspensions

R Singh, R Adhikari, ME Cates

– The Journal of Chemical Physics

(2019)

151,

044901

(DOI: 10.1063/1.5090179)

Conching chocolate is a prototypical transition from frictionally jammed solid to flowable suspension with maximal solid content

E Blanco, DJM Hodgson, M Hermes, R Besseling, GL Hunter, PM Chaikin, ME Cates, I Van Damme, WCK Poon

– Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

(2019)

116,

10303

(DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1901858116)

Shear-Induced First-Order Transition in Polar Liquid Crystals.

T Markovich, E Tjhung, ME Cates

– Physical review letters

(2019)

122,

088004

(DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.122.088004)

Optimizing active work: Dynamical phase transitions, collective motion, and jamming.

T Nemoto, É Fodor, ME Cates, RL Jack, J Tailleur

– Physical Review E

(2019)

99,

022605

(DOI: 10.1103/physreve.99.022605)

From bulk to microphase separation in scalar active matter: A perturbative renormalization group analysis

F Caballero, C Nardini, ME Cates

– Journal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experiment

(2018)

2018,

123208

(DOI: 10.1088/1742-5468/aaf321)

Cluster Phases and Bubbly Phase Separation in Active Fluids: Reversal of the Ostwald Process

E Tjhung, C Nardini, ME Cates

– Physical Review X

(2018)

8,

031080

(DOI: 10.1103/physrevx.8.031080)

Dynamic Vorticity Banding in Discontinuously Shear Thickening Suspensions.

RN Chacko, R Mari, ME Cates, SM Fielding

– Phys Rev Lett

(2018)

121,

108003

(DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.121.108003)