The Soft Matter and Porous Media Group is located in the School of Chemical and Physical Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington. It is also part of The MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology. The group was founded by Professor Paul Callaghan upon his appointment to Massey University in 1975. In July 2001 most of the group moved to Wellington, but collaboration continues with colleagues at Massey University.
The Laboratory used by the group is known as the "The Magnetic Resonance of Materials Laboratory". While NMR is the main technique, the laboratory has excellent rheometers as well as dynamic light scattering facilities. Our team specialises in developing NMR methodologies for the study of molecular dynamics and molecular organisation in soft matter and porous materials. This field of research is sometimes called "squishy physics". The group comprises a mix of physicists and chemists and our research deals with a wide variety of physical and biophysical systems. Our methods involve Pulsed Gradient Spin Echo (PGSE) NMR, NMR microscopy, and NMR spectroscopy, these are supplemented by rheometry and light scattering. Such measurements can test fundamental physical theories relating to dynamics in microemulsions, liquid crystals and polymers.
As well as this core research, additional work is carried out by members of the group in a number of different areas, including design and construction of NMR instrumentation and gradient coils. We have a close link with a spin-off company "magritek" (http://www.magritek.com) and several ex-group members are company employees. magritek is licensed to commercialise some of our research.
The Soft Matter and Porous Media group has a strong international flavour. Around one-half of the research students are from abroad. We also have a steady stream of visiting professors, post-doctoral fellows from around the world, most recently from Slovenia, Israel, USA, UK, Portugal, Germany, Sweden, Mexico, France, Japan and Korea.
