Back in August of 2016, Tim, Chris, Andrew DB, and Andrew M spent two weeks in residency at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. The trip, made possible by a Tufts University travel grant, allowed the SoftMatterTheory team to work in person with longtime collaborator Patrick Spicer and fellow chemical engineer Stuart Prescott. While there, Chris and Andrew M made tremendous strides towards completing two different papers on sphere packing on curved surfaces, while Andrew DB ran some simulations to round out droplet restructuring work being done by Prerna Dahiya of the Spicer group.
Chris and the Andrews in front of the Sydney Opera House
Of course, we were 10,000 miles from home, so we weren’t about to spend all our time working. The group made it out to the Blue Mountains for some hiking; to Maroubra for a surf lesson; to Manly, Coogee, and Bondi for quality beach time (even though they claimed it was winter); to all sorts of restaurants and shops in the different neighborhoods of Sydney; and they even got to hop around on a pool of oobleck as a part of UNSW’s Open Day. And if that doesn’t make you want to do science for a living, I don’t know what will.
Andrew DB jumps around on a pool of oobleck, while Chris gets ready to take his turn, and Pat explains the phenomenon to an onlooking UNSW student.
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