Soft condensed matter means everything which is dense on the one hand -- in the sense that many particles interact with each other, like in a liquid or solid, but unlike in a gas -- but which can easily be deformed on the other hand. Most biological materials are soft condensed matter and many "everyday substances" such as paint, shampoo or yoghurt.
We are mainly doing computer simulations and sometimes theory. One topic that we are currently particularly interested in is the simulation of rare events. Many systems exhibit free energy barriers, as for example nucleation barriers at first order phase transitions or barriers between different conformations of a molecule. The states on top of the barrier (the transition states) are crucial for the evolution of the system, but they are difficult to find with conventional simulation methods. We are looking for new algorithms in order to identify such states in nucleation problems.
If you are interested in doing your Bachelor/Master thesis with us, you are welcome to apply! Please send your application to Tanja.Schilling@uni.lu.