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Higgs School on Advances in Computational Active Matter

Event description

Image courtesy of the Computational Advances in Active Matter Lorentz workshop and copyright imaginescience.nl

Higgs School on Advances in Computational Active Matter

Active matter has emerged as a field with strong ties to non-equilibrium soft condensed matter and biological physics. Successes of the field include describing the dynamics of motile microbes and flocks of birds, defect self-propulsion in liquid crystals, wound healing and tissue fluidization, modeling of colony growth, and much more. The development of this field owes much to computational techniques. We have therefore put together a school that will introduce early-career researchers to the topic of computational methods for active matter.

Topics Covered

We will provide lectures on 10 topics within computational active matter, each consisting of two 90 minutes sessions, spread over five days. This includes:

  • Active-Brownian and Run-and-Tumble Particles
  • Cellular-Potts and Vertex Models for Tissues
  • Phase-Field Approaches for Pattern-Forming Active Systems
  • Hydrodynamic Methods for Active Systems, including Lattice Boltzmann, Multi-Particle Collision Dynamics, and Stokesian Dynamics
  • Squirmer models and immersed boundary conditions
  • Phoretic Interaction in Chemical Swimmers

The school is concluded with a lecture on the future of active matter systems and will have a group dinner.

Lecturers

We have confirmed the following lecturers and speakers:

  • Dr. Benno Liebchen (Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany)
  • Dr. Chantal Valeriani (Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain)
  • Dr. Davide Marenduzzo (University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom)
  • Dr. Enkeleida Lushi (New Jersey Institute of Technology, United States of America)
  • Dr. Erika Tsingos (Utrecht University, Netherlands)
  • Dr. Gwynn Elfring (University of British Columbia, Canada)
  • Dr. Holger Stark (Technische Universität Berlin, Germany)
  • Dr. Ignacio Pagonabarraga (University of Barcelona, Spain)
  • Dr. Rastko Sknepnek (University of Dundee, United Kingdom)
  • Dr. Timm Krüger (University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom)

A detailed schedule of the lecturing will be made available soon.

Participation:

If you would like to attend, please register by Sunday March 30th 2025. There is a £150.00 participation fee, which includes the group dinner, lunches, and refreshments. You will need to arrange your own accommodation. A list of recommended hotels and guest houses has been uploaded to the Indico page. We are limited to 40 participants. Should the school be oversubscribed, we will give preference to PhD students. Registrations should be accompanied by a 100-word motivation and a short CV (max. 1 A4 page) to help us make a selection in that case.

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Timetable

See the full timetable on Indico

Sessions

29 Jun 2025
Bootcamp: Bootcamp

12:00—13:30
Bootcamp: Monte Carlo, thermostats, random numbers and general considerations (1h30′)
Speaker(s):
  • Joost DE GRAAF (Utrecht University)
13:45—15:15
Bootcamp: Active particles and analysing simulation data (1h30′)
Speaker(s):
  • Silke HENKES (Leiden University)

29 Jun 2025 15:30
Walk up Authur's Seat

30 Jun 2025
Morning Session: LAMMPS and Cellular Potts

08:00—08:15
Introduction (0h15′)
Speaker(s):
  • Joakim STENHAMMAR (Lund University)
08:15—09:45
Active Brownian Particles (1h30′)
Speaker(s):
10:00—11:30
Collective behavior of cells in animal development (1h30′)
Speaker(s):
  • Erika TSINGOS

30 Jun 2025
Afternoon Session: LAMMPS and Cellular Potts

13:00—14:30
Run-and-tumble particles (1h30′)
Speaker(s):
15:00—16:30
Cell-based modelling approaches to animal development (1h30′)
Speaker(s):
  • Erika TSINGOS

1 Jul 2025
Morning Session: Vertex and Phase Field Models

08:00—09:30
Vertex model for tissue mechanics (1h30′)
Speaker(s):
  • Rastko SKNEPNEK
10:00—11:30
Continuum theories for active particles (1h30′)
Speaker(s):
  • Benno LIEBCHEN

1 Jul 2025
Afternoon Session: Vertex and Phase Field Models

13:00—14:30
Modelling active elastic membranes and sheets using triangulated surfaces (1h30′)
Speaker(s):
  • Rastko SKNEPNEK
15:00—16:30
Pattern formation in phoretic active matter (1h30′)
Speaker(s):
  • Benno LIEBCHEN

2 Jul 2025
Morning Session: Stokesian Dynamics and Lattice Boltzmann Methods

08:00—09:30
Hydrodynamic interactions in Stokes flow (1h30′)
Speaker(s):
  • Gwynn ELFRING
10:00—11:30
Lattice Boltzmann method: principles (1h30′)
Speaker(s):
  • Krueger, Timm

2 Jul 2025
Afternoon Session: Stokesian Dynamics and Lattice Boltzmann Methods

13:00—14:30
Active Stokesian Dynamics (1h30′)
Speaker(s):
  • Gwynn ELFRING
15:00—16:30
Lattice Boltzmann method: suspensions and fluctuating hydrodynamics (1h30′)
Speaker(s):
  • Krueger, Timm

3 Jul 2025
Morning Session: Immersed Boundary Methods and Multi-phase Cahn-Hilliard Dynamics

08:00—09:30
Immersed boundary methods: theory and implementation (1h30′)
Speaker(s):
  • Enkeleida LUSHI
10:00—11:30
Theory of phase field models with and without hydrodynamics (1h30′)
Speaker(s):

3 Jul 2025
Afternoon Session: Immersed Boundary Methods and Multi-phase Cahn-Hilliard Dynamics

13:00—14:30
Immersed boundary methods: applications to active matter (1h30′)
Speaker(s):
  • Enkeleida LUSHI
15:00—16:30
Tissue and cell monolayer modelling via phase fields (1h30′)
Speaker(s):

4 Jul 2025
Morning Session: Hydrodynamic Studies of Microswimmers and Multi-Particle Collision Dynamics

08:00—09:30
Hydrodynamic Studies of Microswimmers I: Multi-particle collision dynamics and squirmers (1h30′)
Speaker(s):
10:00—11:30
Multi-particle collision dynamics for active fluids (1h30′)
Speaker(s):

4 Jul 2025
Afternoon Session: Hydrodynamic Studies of Microswimmers and Conclusion

13:00—14:30
Hydrodynamic Studies of Microswimmers II: Squirmer rods, E. coli bacteria, African trypanosomes, ... (1h30′)
Speaker(s):
15:00—16:00
What have we learned? (1h00′)
Speaker(s):
-

Higgs School on Advances in Computational Active Matter

Related events

This event is part of:

Organisers

  • Joost De Graaf
    (
    • Utrecht University
    )
  • Silke Henkes
    (
    • Leiden University
    )
  • Tyler Shendruk
    (
    • University of Edinburgh
    )
  • Joakim Stenhammar
    (
    • Lund University
    )

Key speakers

  • Gwynn ELFRING (UBC)
  • Timm KRUGER (Edinburgh)
  • Benno LIEBCHEN
  • Enkeleida LUSHI (New Jersey Institute of Technology)
  • Davide MARENDUZZO (Edinburgh)
  • Ignacio PAGONABARRAGA (Barcelona)
  • Rastko SKNEPNEK (University of Dundee)
  • Holger STARK (Technical University of Berlin)
  • Erika TSINGOS (Utrecht)
  • Chantal VALERIANI (Universidad Complutense de Madrid)

Register for this event