Geilo School 2017

The main theme of the "Geilo School" will be: Physics Inspired by Living Matter. Subthemes: A Collective dynamics occurs for example in birds flocking, swimming bacteria colonies, and cells forming dynamic aggregates. In these systems, known as active matter, the energy is injected at the level of the ?particles?. In driven matter the energy is injected at a macroscopic global scale, such as systems subject to vibrations, thermal gradients, electric or magnetic fields. Active matter and driven matter generally exhibit self-assembled or self-organized dynamic structures. B Topological features affect the physical properties of matter from nano- to macroscales. Important examples of topological effects are disclinations in liquid crystals, knots and entanglement, twisting and chirality of filaments. Living matter provide numerous examples of such phenomena. C Functionality relates to the properties of engineered materials inspired by living matter, such as materials formed by colloidal and polymeric building blocks that can be tuned precisely to achieve macroscopic features such as non-wettability, thermal insulation, or structural coloration. Topics will cover both experiments and theory. In addition to about 40 hours of invited lectures and sem Topics will cover both experiments and theory. In addition to about 40 hours of invited lectures and seminars, there will be tutorials and discussions. The invited lecturers are requested to stay the full duration of the School to interact with the students. Participants are also encouraged to submit abstracts for a poster session. The motivation for this Geilo School is to bring together researchers with various interests and background including theoretical physicists, soft condensed matter experimentalists, biological physicists, and computer scientists to identify and discuss areas where synergism between these disciplines may be most fruitfully applied to the study of Physics Inspired by Living Matter.