Clare Rees-Zimmerman was awarded a Rideal Travel Bursary to attend the International Soft Matter Conference 2025 in Chania, Crete. Here she tells us about her highlights from the conference.
"In my current fellowship, hosted by Prof. Dirk Aarts at the University of Oxford, I have been working on a computational inverse method that infers particle interactions from their observed positions. The method was originally developed for equilibrium systems. Understanding these interactions is important because they determine how particles arrange and behave in many industrial and biological systems. My presentation was about effective interactions in self-propelled particle systems (known as active matter), exploring how non-equilibrium systems can be understood using ideas from equilibrium statistical physics. This work is a collaboration with the group of Prof. Chantal Valeriani, Complutense University of Madrid.
"Specifically, my talk showed that effective pair potentials can be obtained for active Brownian particles (ABPs). This is an interesting finding; despite inherently being out of equilibrium, as long as the active system reaches a steady state, we can still find effective interactions that describe its structure. These effective interactions also provide insight into active systems – for example, purely repulsive active particles can give rise to effective attractive behaviour. Discussions during and after my talk provided valuable feedback that will help shape the next stages of this work as we refine our current manuscript.
"The conference was also an excellent opportunity to increase visibility for our recently published paper on inverse methods for measuring colloidal interactions. Sharing these ideas with an international audience helped raise awareness of our approach, which has potential applications across a range of soft matter systems. Beyond my own talk, I attended inspiring sessions on theoretical and experimental methods, colloidal assembly, and active systems.
"This was my first time visiting Greece and my first experience attending an ISMC. It was the furthest from home I have presented my research, and it provided not only a valuable scientific experience but also an enjoyable cultural one – I particularly enjoyed the Greek folk dancing at the conference dinner! I was equally pleased with my ISMC 2025 sunhat, a fun memento of a memorable week in Crete.
"Attending ISMC 2025 was highly beneficial both scientifically and professionally. It allowed me to share my work with a broad audience, gain constructive feedback on ongoing research, and strengthen connections within the global soft matter community. As I come to the end of my Junior Research Fellowship and prepare to begin the next stage of my career as a lecturer, these new contacts and insights will be invaluable for building future collaborations and developing my independent research programme.
"I am very grateful to the SCI-RSC Rideal Trust for their generous financial support, which made my attendance at ISMC 2025 possible. I gratefully acknowledge additional support from Christ Church, University of Oxford."
Clare Rees-Zimmerman
PhD student
University of Oxford
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