Knowledge Transfer and Community Building:
89th New England Complex Fluids Workshop

The MRSEC-sponsored, quarterly New England Complex Fluids (NECF) workshops developed by Weitz and Fraden (Brandeis MRSEC) have been a vital mechanism to nurture the area's soft matter community. Researchers were delighted by the return to an in person meeting for the 89th NECF workshop held at Harvard in December 2021. Invited speakers included Jia Liu (Harvard) discussing his MRSEC seed project work (top left), Lucy Colwell and Thomas Knowles (Cambridge UK, bottom middle) international participants, Joerg Werner (Boston University, bottom left), and Sara Hashmi (Northeastern U, bottom right). This workshop brought together over 145 participants, including scientists from industry and collaborators from the national laboratories, PREM, and CREST partners like Yaser Banadaki (Southern, middle right) who will be spending a sabbatical at the Center in 2022. In addition to the invited talks, participants gave over 50 "sound bites" (top right and middle left) which helps introduce new members and inform the community of their latest results with time for discussion.