Welcome to the third annual meeting of the GDR SoPhy! A three-day scientific event exploring hard materials born soft, and emerging interdisciplinary research at the intersection of physics, chemistry, materials science, biology & engineering.

The meeting will take place at the Jussieu campus in Paris from September 8th to 10th. PhD students and postdocs are particularly welcome; the event includes a seminar on academic career development. 

⚠️ New deadline for registration: July 31 ⚠️

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

• Synthesis and characterization of building blocks for the synthesis of soft solids serving as soft precursors
• Control of the spatial organization of 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

This year, in addition to the usual topic of the GDR, the event will include a one-day workshop on biomineralization (co-organized with the GDR BIOMIM) and related advanced characterization techniques on Sept. 9.

Invited speakers and lecturers

Anat Akiva, Radboud Univesity Medical Center

 "Visualizing early osteogenesis through correlative light and electron microscopy"

Laurent Brochard, Laboratoire Navier, Ecole des Ponts, Univ. Gustave Eiffel

 "Understanding the role of water in the mechanics of swelling clays"

Virginie Chamard, CNRS, Institut Fresnel

 "Nature of the phase transitions in calcareous biomineralization pathways

with advanced X-ray Bragg diffraction microscopy approaches at synchrotron sources"

Nico Sommerdijk, Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Sciences

"3D correlative live and cryogenic imaging of mineralizing biological tissues combining Raman, light and electron microscopy"