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CFTC in NASA project on complex fluids in microgravity

NASA's Physical Science Research Program will fund eight proposals to help investigate how complex fluids and macromolecules behave in microgravity. The investigations will be conducted aboard the International Space Station.

These studies will result in new basic knowledge that provides a foundation upon which other NASA researchers and engineers can build approaches to problems confronting human exploration of space or that translate into new tools or applications on Earth. The proposals were in response to the research announcement "Research Opportunities in Complex Fluids and Macromolecular Biophysics."

The selected proposals are from eight institutions in six states and will receive a total of about $5.9 million during a five-year period. Selected experiments will begin immediately.

Margarida Telo da Gama is Co-PI of the proposal

Kinetics of electric field-driven phase transitions in polarized colloids

the PI of which is Boris Khusid, of the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

CFTC is responsible for the modelling, numerical simulations and stability analysis of polarisable colloids in the presence of electric fields, building on the expertise of both the soft matter and non-linear dynamics groups.