I am a second-year graduate student in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Pennsylvania, working with Dr. Randall Kamien. I study theoretical topics in soft condensed matter physics. Specifically, I am interested in defects in liquid crystals.
Ordered phases of matter are characterized by broken symmetries. When the order parameter that measures this symmetry-breaking is found in a configuration topologically distinct from the ground state locally, the material contains a topological defect. As they cannot be "smoothed away" by local rearrangements, topological defects play important roles in determining the bulk properties of a material. In the cases of the main liquid crystalline phases, with order intermediate between that of a fluid and that of a crystalline solid, the symmetries of these materials were in fact first identified through observation of their topological defects. While these singularities arise at random as a result of thermal fluctuations, they may also occur as predictable, stable features in equilibrium when the boundary conditions are inconsistent with a uniform ground state. By studying how to precisely control topological defects via boundary conditions, we aim to identify design principles for new applications of liquid crystalline materials, particularly with regard to their optical properties and their interactions with colloids and inclusions.
Please follow the above links to learn more about me, my research, and the people I work with. Feel free to contact me at dbeller [at] sas[dot]upenn[dot]edu, or download my CV (LaTeX).