Laurel Kroo

Thrilled to announce that I will be joining the faculty of Polymer Science and Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2025 @UMassAmherst! And SO grateful for the many friendships/future collabs that budded (across many universities!) this interview season. 1/11

George Degen, a postdoc in Mechanical Engineering, and Gareth McKinley, a professor of mechanical engineering and an expert in materials science and fluid flow, are among researchers who have developed a new mucus-derived glue. Read more: mitsha.re/44mP50V7ENe

A new kind of elastic surface instability is observed during flow of extremely soft elastic solids through a confined space Letter: go.aps.org/4aORvks Video: go.aps.org/4aTAPZe

The 2025 Society of Rheology's Annual Meeting will be held in enchanted Santa Fe, NM on October 19-23. Look for our call for abstracts later this spring and save the dates to discuss everything that flows. We hope to see you there! #SoR2025

Dr. Michael C. Burroughs (@flowslikemike) is doing groundbreaking work in sustainable polymers— working on a number of fascinating projects at the intersection of chemistry and rheology! Previous phd student of @theHelgesonLab @UCSBChE and currently a postdoc with @daniellejmai at Stanford. Mike is a highly active member of the rheology community and a FANTASTIC science communicator. I’ve enjoyed his deeply insightful talks immensely through the years — he’s at the front of a technical interface that matters A LOT to society right now. Particularly good fit in ChemE and polymer/macro places! Can’t wait to see where he ends up :-)

Dr. Rahul Chajwa (@RahulChajwa) is a deeply-caring and curiosity-driven biophysicist who recently discovered one of the most critical scientific findings of the last decade — and published it in Science this year together with (the one and only) @ManuPra18599785 /@PrakashLab at Stanford — relating to how the marine carbon cycle is influenced by translucent, viscoelastic mucus (generated by living bacteria!) that encase sedimenting marine snow see: 10.1126/science.adl5767 . Rahul is one of those amazing humans you always learn something new from when you grab a beer at a conference together. Bioengineering, mechE or physics searches — just talk to this inspiring physicist!

Shoutout to faculty search committees: Highlighting 3 brilliant experiment-focused #ComplexFluids friends on the faculty market this cycle: George Degen, @RahulChajwa, and @flowslikemike. Wishing them the very best! 🎉💦🔬 #FacultyMarket #AcademicTwitter

The Future of Rheology seminar series held their first ever in-person mini session at #SoR2024 on October 16. The SoR packed the room for these promising young rheologists! Congratulations to @KrutarthMKamani, Kushboo Suman, and @LaurelKroo who were recognized with awards!

We're delighted to announce the 2024 Soft Matter lectureship has been awarded to Prof Sujit Datta (@TheSquishyLab) Find out more about Sujit on our blog - blogs.rsc.org/sm/2024/10/23/… Read work from Sujit & previous winners for free until 30 Nov! - pubs.rsc.org/en/journals/ar…

Don’t forgot to sign up for one of the @UMassPSE grad program info sessions on 10/24!

🔊Repost appreciated🔊Note that the application fees to the Fall 2025 UMass PSE Ph.D. program will be waived for anyone who registers & attends our info session! #PhD #Polymers #SoftMaterials

Congratulations to all of our deserving winners tonight at #SoR2024! Gallery of Rheology, Space, Poster x2, and Future of Rheology going to some bright minds!!

@UMassPSE @UMassAmherst is hosting Ph.D. program info sessions on October 24, 2024. Please register!😃 10:30-11:30am (ET) (lu.ma/me0r1l56) 7:30-8:30pm (ET) (lu.ma/74esipzg) Application fees for the Fall 2025 PhD program will be waived if you register & attend!

(And a huge thank you specifically to to Profs. @DivouxLab , @emanueladelgado , @garethmckinley and Laurence Ramos for putting together this whole program!)

Flying home from a FABULOUS 2 wks at the #SoftMatter Summer School in Corsica! Made new friends + had a blast teaching hands-on lab sessions on #ComplexFluids (gelation,extensional rheometry +instabilities) each w/ 70+ ppl! Thanks to the organizers for the opportunity! #DreamJob

What a day @IES_Cargese with lectures on #Fat Crystallization & Structure by A. Marangoni (@uofg), R&D for creating nutritious #food by P. Smith (@Cargill), and #Yielding of amorphous materials by S. Fielding (@durham_uni) followed by the 4th food demo presented by @LaurelKroo!

... the day ended with V. Sharma @Odeslab (@UIC_ChE) leading a #food demo on tears & legs of #wine with great help from @LaurelKroo (@MIT). The perfect way to start the second week of our summer school on #SoftMatter & foodstuffs! cc @CNRS @CNRSphysique @lpensl #everythingflows

Fantastic day @IES_Cargese with lectures on #scattering & colloidal #gels by P. Fischer, G. Petekidis & @emanueladelgado followed by a career panel w/ @Fonterra @Nestle & @Cargill ... and exciting outdoor #Food demos lead by @LaurelKroo & @garethmckinley! cc @CNRS @CNRSphysique

Who would have thought that I could manipulate polymer chains from a coiled to a stretched state using just my own hands? Mechanical gelation of the "shake gel" at the #Cargèse Summer School on #SoftMatter systems

Excited to organize this year’s Soft Matter school with @garethmckinley, @emanueladelgado and L. Ramos in beautiful #Cargèse! Big thanks to @Cargill, @Fonterra, @SoftCompNetwork, @Georgetown, @cnrs, @lpensl for supporting this event! Can’t wait to meet the 90+ participants! 🎉👨‍🏫