Zsolt Terdik
School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

Zsolt Terdik is a graduate student in Applied Physics at Harvard's John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. As an undergraduate at the University of Chicago, he pursued two research projects in soft matter physics and quantum chemistry. In soft matter his first research experience was large deformations and active micro-rheology in 2D colloidal liquid in the research groups of Profs. Norbert Scherer, Stuart Rice, and Aaron Dinner. In quantum chemistry, he pursued computer modeling of next generation photocathode materials for X-ray free electron lasers under the guidance of Kathy Harkay and Karoly Nemeth at Argonne National Laboratory. After graduating in 2011 with a double major in Physics and Math, he began graduate school at Harvard in 2012. His current research interests are the mechanics of soft disordered materials in laboratories of Profs. Frans Spaepen and David Weitz. He also pursued a variety of projects at the intersection between materials sciences and soft matters physics, and has advised multiple summer undergraduate students as part of the MRSEC's REU program.

Currently, Zsolt studies the mechanical deformation of colloidal glass in the Experimental Soft Condensed Matter Group with the aim of characterizing the microscopic mechanisms responsible for plastic deformation and flow. In many ways, the motivating question is "What mechanism in disordered materials plays a role analogous to dislocations in crystals?" In particular, he is in interested in understanding the coupling between the disordered network of nearest neighbor contacts, the local free volume, and the strain field. Together, these quantities characterize the mechanical response leading up to local irreversible rearrangements and hence plastic deformation.