Title of the project: Magnetic Platelets and their Ordered Phases
Name of the VDSP student: Margaret Rosenberg
Project supervised by: Sofia Kantorovich

I'm a second-year computational physics PhD student in the Dipolar Soft Matter group. This year, I'm excited to be more involved with VDS-P as your Deputy (Vice) Student Speaker. When I'm not doing science or speaking for the vices, I enjoy (trail-)running, playing pen & paper RPGs and starting arts-y or crafts-y projects that I never seem to finish.

This is a simulation snapshot of a suspension of the kind of polydisperse colloidal magnetic nanoplatets (around 15-115nm) which I have been studying for my thesis. Their color goes from dark red to dark blue following their size, while the dipole moment is indicated by the golden arrow pointing out of the platelet plane. In the image, the platelets are still at a fairly low concentration, resulting in an isotropic phase. At higher concentrations, the interplay of their anisotropic shape will allow them to form a nematic liquid crystalline phase. At the same time, the anisometry of their magnetic moment will result in a ferromagnetic nematic phase.

Kantorovich group