Speaker：David A. WEITZ ( Harvard University)

Time：November 27th, 2025 at 14:00 PM

Location: C1-b115, GuangzhouInternational Campus,SCUT  

Abstract:

This talk will describe the use of microfluidics to create drops of one fluid in a second fluid. The volume of the drops can be of order a picolitre and they can be created in large quantities. These drops have a myriad of uses, both for creating materials and for investigating biological problems. The drops can be used as templates for formulating new materials that exhibit fascinating physical properties and have many applications, primarily for encapsulation and release of active ingredients. The use of microfluidics technology enables formulation of highly uniform drops and controlled mixing of multiple fluids. Although the structures are formulated individually, one at a time, scaleup strategies can nevertheless produce sufficient quantities for practical uses. The drops can also be used as very small reaction vessels for biological and biotechnological applications, and I will also describe some prototypic examples of this.
Biography: 

David A. WEITZ is the Mallingkrodt Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Harvard University, where he has appointment in both the Physics Department and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He received his PhD in physics from Harvard, and then worked at Exxon Research and Engineering for nearly 18 years. He then was a professor of Physics at the University of Pennsylvania before joining to Harvard, where he leads the experimental soft condensed matter physics research group. His research efforts include soft matter physics, biophysics and biotechnology. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the American Academy of Arts and Science.