MSCA COFUND PhD@Tec21 - PhD position in Soft Matter From Soft Cells to Solid Cellular Matter: Programming Structure via Drying Dynamics

id="offer-description" class="ecl-u-type-heading-2 ecl-u-mt-none ecl-u-mb-l">Offer Description Context and work environment . Solid cellular materials derive many of their functional properties from their architectures, such as for adaptive stiffness, mass transport, and energy dissipation. Existing fabrication approaches, including additive manufacturing and templating, provide a good control over cellular structures. However, these strategies generally require pre-designing or imposing structures in advance, meaning that any change in the desired properties needs redesigning the underlying architecture. This project explores a different strategy: Can cellular structures self-emerge and be controlled during material processing, without being pre-designed or imposed? Inspired by the self-organization in emulsions and liquid foams, we will apply hydrogel foams as the model system and investigate how cellular architectures evolve during drying. Here, drying is more than simply removing water: it is a dynamic transformation in which water transport, capillary forces, and the network mechanics interact to shape the final structures. The project will address how do these coupled dynamics govern the structure selection and whether they can be translated into predictive design rules. Team description . The PhD Fellow will primarily work within two Tec21 associated laboratories in Grenoble, and will also benefit from the research secondment in Amsterdam. Laboratoire Rhéologie et Proc