Emanuela Del Gado

Last updated
Emanuela Del Gado
Alma mater University of Naples Federico II
Known forComplex materials
Jammed solids
Awards Fellow of the American Physical Society (2020)
Scientific career
Institutions Georgetown University
ETH Zurich
University of Montpellier II

Emanuela Del Gado is an Italian theoretical physicist and the Provost's Distinguished Professor at Georgetown University. She combines statistical mechanics and computational modelling to understand complex materials.

Contents

Early life and education

Del Gado studied physics at the University of Naples Federico II. [1] She graduated cum laude before earning her doctoral degree at the same university. [2] Del Gado was appointed a Marie Curie Fellow in 2001, working with Walter Kob at the University of Montpellier II. She worked as a postdoctoral scholar with Hans Christian Oettinger at ETH Zurich.

Research and career

In 2010 Del Gado served as a Swiss National Science Foundation Professor at ETH Zurich. In 2012 she was elected to AcademiaNet. [3] She joined Georgetown University in 2014, where she is a member of the Department of Physics and Institute for Soft Matter. [4] Her work includes statistical physics and computational theory. [5] [6] She uses modelling and numerical simulations to investigate materials with structural and dynamical complexity; which include amorphous solids, gels and glasses, as well as new green formulations of cements. [7] Gel networks are ubiquitous in nature, and their adaptive and tunable rheological are central to their biological function. Gel networks can be stretched, flow, squeezed or fractured, but a fundamental understanding of such processes is still lacking. Del Gado's group have developed novel theoretical and computational approaches, as well as investigating how the topology of the gel network can determine softening, strain-hardening and brittleness. She has studied how different structural constituents and frozen-in stresses can modify the gel mechanics, and used this understanding to explain experimental observations in a range of materials.

Del Gado uses a spatio-temporal analysis of the microscopic dynamics in jammed soft solids. She showed the rate dependent yielding and flow in jammed materials originates from qualitatively different statistical processes. She demonstrated that frozen-in stresses control the emergence and the persistence of flow inhomogeneities. She also showed that gap growth and permeability increase in endothelia l monolayers is similar to yielding in jammed soft materials. It originates from plastic processes that require cooperation across several cells and the mismatch in the inter-cellular stress alignment (Stress Orientational Defects) can help predict the loci of gap growth.

Cooperative dynamics that emerge during solidification and ageing of soft materials are crucial to their mechanical behavior. To elucidate the role of soft modes, structural heterogeneities and topology, the Del Gado group devised a novel spatio-temporal analysis of these dynamics. They identified the fundamental mechanism governing spatio-temporal correlations and fluctuations in soft solids and at the origin of their ageing. This soft solids include biopolymer networks, microgels, protein gels and even metallic glasses. Del Gado demonstrated that large stress heterogeneities frozen-in during solidification can result in microscopic ruptures and rearrangements, which are due to the elasticity stored in the material structure, which produces intermittent and strongly correlated dynamics.

Del Gado has contributed to the new theoretical description of amorphous solids. [8] In particular, she has studied the material properties of concrete and cement. [9] She has worked on more green, sustainable cement. [10] [11] She developed the first quantitative model and computational approach for gelation and densification of cement hydrate gels that form in early stages of cement hydration and are crucial to mechanics and hygro-thermal behavior of cement and concrete. Using Monte Carlo simulations and molecular dynamics Del Gado studied cement formation, finding the early-stage gelation is crucial in attaining its unique strength. [12] [13] Her research has reconciled contrasting experimental findings and set the path to pursue scientifically guided optimisation of cement properties, opening new possibilities for effective novel formulations of green cements.

Academic service

She was appointed the 2017 Provost's Distinguished Associate Professor in recognition of her contributions to excellence and teaching. [14] She serves on the Advisory Board of DoDyNet, a group who look to advance responsible polymer research. [15] Del Gado is a member of the American Physical Society Executive Committee on soft matter. [16] Del Gado is the Associate Editor of the Journal of Rheology, [17] , and a Member of the Editorial Boards of Frontiers in Physics [18] and the Journal of Physics: Materials. [19]

Honors

In 2020, Del Gado was elected Fellow of the American Physical Society. [20] In 2023, Del Gado was elected Fellow of The Society of Rheology. [21]

Related Research Articles

Rheology is the study of the flow of matter, primarily in a fluid state but also as "soft solids" or solids under conditions in which they respond with plastic flow rather than deforming elastically in response to an applied force. Rheology is the branch of physics that deals with the deformation and flow of materials, both solids and liquids.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gel</span> Highly viscous liquid exhibiting a kind of semi-solid behavior

A gel is a semi-solid that can have properties ranging from soft and weak to hard and tough. Gels are defined as a substantially dilute cross-linked system, which exhibits no flow when in the steady state, although the liquid phase may still diffuse through this system.

Solid mechanics is the branch of continuum mechanics that studies the behavior of solid materials, especially their motion and deformation under the action of forces, temperature changes, phase changes, and other external or internal agents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Soft matter</span> Subfield of condensed matter physics

Soft matter or soft condensed matter is a type of matter that can be deformed or structurally altered by thermal or mechanical stress which is of similar magnitude to thermal fluctuations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thixotropy</span> Change in viscosity of a gel or fluid caused by stress

Thixotropy is a time-dependent shear thinning property. Certain gels or fluids that are thick or viscous under static conditions will flow over time when shaken, agitated, shear-stressed, or otherwise stressed. They then take a fixed time to return to a more viscous state. Some non-Newtonian pseudoplastic fluids show a time-dependent change in viscosity; the longer the fluid undergoes shear stress, the lower its viscosity. A thixotropic fluid is a fluid which takes a finite time to attain equilibrium viscosity when introduced to a steep change in shear rate. Some thixotropic fluids return to a gel state almost instantly, such as ketchup, and are called pseudoplastic fluids. Others such as yogurt take much longer and can become nearly solid. Many gels and colloids are thixotropic materials, exhibiting a stable form at rest but becoming fluid when agitated. Thixotropy arises because particles or structured solutes require time to organize.

Complex fluids are mixtures that have a coexistence between two phases: solid–liquid, solid–gas (granular), liquid–gas (foams) or liquid–liquid (emulsions). They exhibit unusual mechanical responses to applied stress or strain due to the geometrical constraints that the phase coexistence imposes. The mechanical response includes transitions between solid-like and fluid-like behavior as well as fluctuations. Their mechanical properties can be attributed to characteristics such as high disorder, caging, and clustering on multiple length scales.

Applied mechanics is the branch of science concerned with the motion of any substance that can be experienced or perceived by humans without the help of instruments. In short, when mechanics concepts surpass being theoretical and are applied and executed, general mechanics becomes applied mechanics. It is this stark difference that makes applied mechanics an essential understanding for practical everyday life. It has numerous applications in a wide variety of fields and disciplines, including but not limited to structural engineering, astronomy, oceanography, meteorology, hydraulics, mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, nanotechnology, structural design, earthquake engineering, fluid dynamics, planetary sciences, and other life sciences. Connecting research between numerous disciplines, applied mechanics plays an important role in both science and engineering.

This is an alphabetical list of articles pertaining specifically to Engineering Science and Mechanics (ESM). For a broad overview of engineering, please see Engineering. For biographies please see List of engineers and Mechanicians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alkali–silica reaction</span> Chemical reaction damaging concrete

The alkali–silica reaction (ASR), also commonly known as concrete cancer, is a deleterious internal swelling reaction that occurs over time in concrete between the highly alkaline cement paste and the reactive amorphous silica found in many common aggregates, given sufficient moisture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Cates</span> British physicist (born 1961)

Michael Elmhirst Cates is a British physicist. He is the 19th Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge and has held this position since 1 July 2015. He was previously Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh, and has held a Royal Society Research Professorship since 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Energetically modified cement</span> Class of cements, mechanically processed to transform reactivity

Energetically modified cements (EMCs) are a class of cements made from pozzolans, silica sand, blast furnace slag, or Portland cement. The term "energetically modified" arises by virtue of the mechanochemistry process applied to the raw material, more accurately classified as "high energy ball milling" (HEBM). At its simplest this means a milling method that invokes high kinetics by subjecting "powders to the repeated action of hitting balls" as compared to (say) the low kinetics of rotating ball mills. This causes, amongst others, a thermodynamic transformation in the material to increase its chemical reactivity. For EMCs, the HEBM process used is a unique form of specialised vibratory milling discovered in Sweden and applied only to cementitious materials, here called "EMC Activation".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Time-dependent viscosity</span> Property of certain fluids to change viscosity over time

In continuum mechanics, time-dependent viscosity is a property of fluids whose viscosity changes as a function of time. The most common type of this is thixotropy, in which the viscosity of fluids under continuous shear decreases with time; the opposite is rheopecty, in which viscosity increases with time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yogesh M. Joshi</span> Indian chemical engineer (born 1974)

Yogesh Moreshwar Joshi is an Indian chemical engineer, rheologist and the Mr. & Mrs. Gian Singh Bindra Chair Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. He is known for his studies on metastable soft matter and is an elected fellow of the Society of Rheology, Indian National Science Academy, Indian Academy of Sciences,The National Academy of Sciences, India, and Indian National Academy of Engineering. In 2015, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded Joshi the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology for his contributions to Engineering Sciences. In 2023, he received prestigious J C Bose fellowship constituted by the Science and Engineering Research Board, Government of India.

Franz-Josef Ulm is a structural engineer, an engineering scientist and a professor since 1999. He is Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Faculty Director of the Concrete Sustainability Hub (CSHub@MIT). He is credited for discovering the nanogranular structure of calcium silicate hydrates (C-S-H), the binding phase of concrete, and for the development of concepts of nanoengineering of concrete which combine advanced nanomechanics experiments with molecular simulation results. He advocates for environmentally sustainable engineering, with "greener" concrete with lower CO2 footprint, to reduce the carbon footprint of concrete; to enhance concrete's resilience; and reduce its impact on global warming.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">M. Cristina Marchetti</span> American physicist

Maria Cristina Marchetti is an Italian-born, American theoretical physicist specializing in statistical physics and condensed matter physics. In 2019, she received the Leo P. Kadanoff Prize of the American Physical Society. She held the William R. Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professorship of Physics at Syracuse University, where she was the director of the Soft and Living Matter program, and chaired the department 2007–2010. She is currently Professor of Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Bulbul Chakraborty is the Enid and Nate Ancell Professor of Physics at Brandeis University. She is recognized for her contributions to soft condensed matter theory studying systems far from equilibrium, such as granular materials, amorphous systems, and statistical physics. She is an elected American Physical Society and American Association for the Advancement of Science fellow.

Rae Marie Robertson-Anderson is an American biophysicist who is a Professor and Associate Provost at the University of San Diego. She works on soft matter physics and is particularly interested in the transport and molecular mechanics of biopolymer networks. Robertson-Anderson is a member of the Council on Undergraduate Research.

Gareth Huw McKinley is Professor of Teaching Innovation in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Alessio Zaccone is an Italian physicist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matthieu Wyart</span> French physicist and economist

Matthieu Wyart is a French physicist. He is a professor of physics at EPFL and the head of the Physics of Complex Systems Laboratory.

References

  1. ↑ "Emanuela Del Gado". softmatter.georgetown.edu. Retrieved 2019-04-14.
  2. ↑ "Faculty". gufaculty360.georgetown.edu. Retrieved 2019-04-14.
  3. ↑ "Prof. Dr. Emanuela Del Gado - AcademiaNet". www.academia-net.org. Retrieved 2019-04-14.
  4. ↑ Gado, Emanuela Del (2018-09-10). "Viewpoint: Constructing a Theory for Amorphous Solids". Physics. 11.
  5. ↑ Inside a Scientist's Suitcase (2018-01-14), Inside a Scientist's Suitcase: Emanuela Del Gado , retrieved 2019-04-14
  6. ↑ "Keynote speakers | MultiScale Material Science for Energy and Environment". umi.mit.edu. Retrieved 2019-04-14.
  7. ↑ "The secret of nanoparticle packing in cement". phys.org. Retrieved 2019-04-14.
  8. ↑ Gado, Emanuela Del (2018-09-10). "Viewpoint: Constructing a Theory for Amorphous Solids". Physics. 11.
  9. ↑ "Keynote speakers | MultiScale Material Science for Energy and Environment". umi.mit.edu. Retrieved 2019-04-14.
  10. ↑ MIT Civil and Environmental Engineering (2017-04-28), C. C. Mei Distinguished Speaker Series: Emanuela Del Gado , retrieved 2019-04-14
  11. ↑ "Reducing environmental impact of concrete, an interdisciplinary challenge". physics.georgetown.edu. Retrieved 2019-04-14.
  12. ↑ Gado, Emanuela Del; Dobnikar, Jure; Daan Frenkel; Li, Lunna; Kanduč, Matej; Ioannidou, Katerina (2016-07-15). "The crucial effect of early-stage gelation on the mechanical properties of cement hydrates". Nature Communications. 7: 12106. Bibcode:2016NatCo...712106I. doi:10.1038/ncomms12106. ISSN   2041-1723. PMC   4947183 . PMID   27417911.
  13. ↑ "CM Theory | Gelation and Densification of Cement Hydrates: A Soft Matter in Construction | Happening @ Michigan". events.umich.edu. Retrieved 2019-04-14.
  14. ↑ "Emanuela Del Gado named Provost's Distinguished Associate Professor". physics.georgetown.edu. 2017-02-16. Retrieved 2019-04-14.
  15. ↑ "International Advisory Board – Dodynet". www.dodynet.eu. Retrieved 2019-04-14.
  16. ↑ "Prof. Emanuela Del Gado Elected as APS GSOFT Executive Committee Member". physics.georgetown.edu. Retrieved 2019-04-14.
  17. ↑ "Journal of Rheology - Editors". American Institute of Physics . Retrieved 2024-11-03.
  18. ↑ "Frontiers in Physics - Soft Matter Physics - Editorial Board". Frontiers Media . Retrieved 2024-11-03.
  19. ↑ "Journal of Physics: Materials - Editorial board". IOP Publishing . Retrieved 2024-11-03.
  20. ↑ "APS Fellows Archive" . Retrieved 2020-10-09.
  21. ↑ "The Society of Rheology - Emanuela Del Gado". Society of Rheology . Retrieved 2024-11-03.
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