Home Page for Arlette Baljon

Arlette R.C. Baljon
Associate Professor
Department of Physics
San Diego State University
San Diego, CA 92128

Office: P-136
Tel: (619)-594-2051
Fax: (619)-594-5485
Biography

Research: Physics of - Polymeric and Biological - Soft Matter

Physics may be viewed as a collection of concepts. By combining these concepts we are able to understand a wide range of phenomena. My area of research, soft matter physics, is only a few decades old. Hence, unlike in older fields, many phenomena can not be explained in terms of established concepts. New ones must be developed. The main purpose of my research is to contribute to the formulation of these new concepts. To this end, I perform computer simulations of yet unexplained phenomena. Insights obtained in these studies pave the way for more encompassing theories and constitutive equations with a wide range of applications.

A more specific objective is to enhance physical understanding of polymeric materials and biological systems driven far from equilibrium by a stress that is high relative to intrinsic relaxation times. This involves phenomena like yielding and phase slip, plasticity, crazing, shear banding, flow-induced ordering, memory, and information content of far-from equilibrium systems. One research area are reversible polymeric gels. How do these gels encode the history of deformation in their network topology? Or, alternatively, we envision that such adaptive polymeric materials consolidate a memory by moving in succession from one to the next metastable steady state.

In addition, I model mucus and collaborate with researchers of SDSU's Viral Information Institute, a cross-disciplinary effort to characterize and study the global virosphere. VII experimentalists have shown that mucus helps phage to protect the body against bacterial pathogens and is crucial for a healthy microbiome. As any adaptive polymeric network, mucus encodes information about its environment into its structural and dynamical patterns. How does mucus help phage to hunt for bacteria and defend the human body? Is healthy mucus wired or rewiring in a specific way?

I am also studying reflective and contemplative pedagogies, an SDSU community effort. How can reflection and beholding exercises help students to internalize new cognitive knowledge? Since Spring 2018 my Polymer Science class is stacked with a class in dance choreography as part of the Arts Alive Initiative. Students report that movement helps them to develop a better understanding of the scientific material. I wonder if artistic expressions can also help develop somatic intuitive insight into scientific research problems, which could lead to novel creative and imaginative solutions.

My research is funded by the National Science Foundation (DMR theory), Petroleum Research Foundation (American Chemical Society), CA State University's Course Redesign Institute, as well as SDSU's and philanthropic support for the Viral Information Institute.

I sing in a choir and like to work with clay and fabric. I travel to nearby and faraway places and most recently went to India to teach Quantum Physics and Relativity at a Tibetan monastery.