Physics Horizons Seminar with Professor Michelle Driscoll
2026-05-12 17:30 - 18:30 (America/Chicago) | Technological Institute, F160, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208
Michelle Driscoll will present her research in a special seminar targeting undergraduates (but the entire community is welcome!). Following the talk will be an informal Q&A session so you can learn more! Pizza will be served! Complex fluids under extreme stress ...or what happens when you throw oobleck? Why does ketchup flow better when you whack the bottle? Why is oobleck able to transform from a flowing liquid to a solid when you squeeze it? These materials belong to a class of fluids called 'Complex fluids'. Complex fluids are all around us - toothpaste, peanut butter, makeup, and shaving cream are all common examples. These materials are called 'complex fluids' because they can behave both like solids or like liquids, depending on what kind of forces are applied to them. My work involves subjecting these materials to extremely high forces and using high-speed photography to look at the results. I will show that this leads to these materials breaking apart, flopping around, and in general behaving in beautiful and surprising ways. We can then use our imaging data to extract new information about these materials, and learn more about the physics that drives their behavior.

Register: https://forms.gle/U79okqfPVnFAT4tq5
