Statement

I am eager to serve as Vice-President of the Society of Rheology to help shape a dynamic, inclusive, and forward-looking community. Having benefited from the Society's deep commitment to excellence and collaboration, I am passionate about mentoring early-career rheologists and fostering an environment where they can thrive. I will work to strengthen partnerships with industry, ensuring our research drives meaningful, real-world impact. I also see tremendous opportunity in advancing the integration of AI into rheology—from materials characterization to automated formulation and design and more. Finally, I am committed to safeguarding the Society’s financial health and keeping our annual meetings accessible to all, expanding participation and amplifying our collective impact.

Biosketch

Dr. Roger T. Bonnecaze is the Dean of the Cockrell School of Engineering and holds the Cockrell Family Regents Chair as a Professor in the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering. For The Society of Rheology, he has served as a member of the Metzner Award Committee, served as member and then chair of the Selection Committee for Fellows of the Society of Rheology, and as a member of the selection committee for the Journal of Rheology Publication Award. Roger also was the organizing chair of the 95th Annual Meeting of the Society of Rheology in Austin, Texas. He has received two Journal of Rheology and one Rheologica Acta Publication Awards and is a Fellow of The Society of Rheology.

Savvas G. HATZIKIRIAKOS obtained his diploma in chemical engineering from the Aristotelean University of Thessaloniki (Thessaloniki, Greece) (1983), his M.A.Sc. in chemical engineering from the University of Toronto (Toronto, Canada) (1988) and his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from McGill University (Montreal Canada). Since 1991 he is been a professor in the department of Chemical and Biological engineering at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada). His main research interests are in the area of polymer and other complex fluid rheology and use of rheology as a tool to solve practical problems in polymer processing.

I am delighted to serve The Society of Rheology as Vice President. The Society of Rheology has been my “research home” for the past 35 years. Our society thrives thanks to the supportive and collective efforts of researchers and practitioners who recognize rheology as an invaluable scientific tool. This discipline spans many fields at the intersection of science, engineering, and technology, driving innovations that impact a wide array of industries, from healthcare to sustainable energy and materials. It is an honor to contribute to these endeavors, promote the importance of rheology, and support the training of the next generation of rheologists.

Savvas brings over 15 years of experience serving the Canadian Society of Rheology in various capacities, including as Executive Member, Vice President, President, and Past President. He has also contributed to The Society of Rheology through his involvement in several committees, including the Bingham Award Committee (2011–2014), the Nomination Committee (2013), the Advisory Board of the Journal of Rheology, and the Fellowship Committee (2022–2024). Additionally, he has organized two Pacific Rim Conferences on Rheology (in 2001 and 2023) and the 77th Annual Meeting of the Society of Rheology—all held in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

My primary interest throughout my career has been the measurement of non-equilibrium phenomena in soft matter; with interests in diverse areas such as liquid crystal dynamics, polymer slippage, confined emulsions, additive manufacturing and my current topic of polymer crystallization as applied to plastics recycling. I have found that the rheological perspective provides a key aspect of any problem that involves flow and deformation of complex materials and that the concepts and tools that emerge from the rheological community find broad applicability in industrial applications.

The Society of Rheology has been my primary professional home for many years. I love its openness, collegiality, and all the flavors of rheology. Its focus on engaging and affordable meetings, student involvement, international outreach and stewardship of the premier rheological journal – all led by volunteers - make this a truly unique society.

Volunteering time for the Society is highly rewarding and worthwhile, and I have been happy to serve in various roles over the years. I am finishing up my third term as SOR Secretary and would be honored to receive your support for another term.

S. Lisa Biswal is the Chair and William M. McCardell Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Rice University in Houston, Texas. She has a B.S in chemical engineering from Caltech (1999), a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Stanford University (2004), followed by a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at UC Berkeley, before starting at Rice in 2006 as an assistant professor, where she currently leads the Soft Matter Engineering Laboratory.

Within her research, Professor Biswal focuses on establishing connections between the rheological behavior of particulate and multiphase systems and the underlying physics governing colloidal assemblies, surfactant stabilization related to foams and emulsions, and the development of polymer composites for batteries. Her research endeavors aim to uncover new insights and ideas that can be used to engineer innovative solutions for a diverse range of technological challenges in the fields of materials and energy.

Over the past decade, Professor Biswal has actively engaged with The Society of Rheology and has made significant contributions to the organization. Her involvement spans various roles and responsibilities, including serving as co-Instructor for a SOR Short Course on the Structure and Rheology of Foams and Emulsions at the 90th Annual Meeting, Technical Program Chair for the 91st Annual Meeting, and chair of the SOR Investment Committee. As current treasurer, she is committed to providing accurate management and oversight of SOR’s financial undertakings with the goal of helping SOR achieve long-term financial stability and continued growth.

Dimitris Vlassopoulos received his Diploma in Chemical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece in 1983. After a short industrial stay in Athens, he attended graduate school at Princeton University, where he received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering in early 1990, working on the rheology of drag-reducing polymer solutions. He started his career at the Paulsboro Research Laboratory of Mobil R&D and later returned to Greece to fulfill his military service and eventually join the Foundation of Research and Technology Hellas (FORTH) at the end of 1992 and the University of Crete, Department of Materials Science & Technology in 2002. He was a visiting Professor at the University of Delaware, ESPCI, ETH Zurich, DTU and the Université catholique de Louvain. He has over 250 publications and was the recipient of the Weissenberg award (2015) and the Bingham Medal (2019). Dimitris has served as co-editor of Rheologica Acta (2006-2011) and Associate Editor of Soft Matter (2015-2021). In 2022 he became the Editor of the Journal of Rheology. He vision is to maintain the tradition of excellence and enhance the impact of the journal by promoting it to the broader soft matter community.

The underlying theme of his research is the molecular engineering of soft matter by devising strategies based on the design of model systems with adaptable molar mass, macromolecular architecture or tunable interactions and bridging polymers and colloids. Current topics include nonlinear rheometry, topological constraints with emphasis on loops, supramolecular assemblies based on hydrogen bonding and the role of environment, associating polymer networks and vitrimers, jammed ultrasoft colloids, and high-pressure microrheology.

Arezoo Ardekani is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University and Associate Head of Faculty Affairs. Honored with the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) from President Obama, Arezoo has also received an NSF CAREER Award, the Arthur B. Metzner Early Career Award from The Society of Rheology, the Society of Engineering Science (SES) Young Investigator Medal, the Sigma Xi Mid-career Research Award, and is named a Purdue University Faculty Scholar. A Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) and American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), Arezoo has also received the College of Engineering Faculty Excellence Awards for Graduate Student Mentorship and Early Career Research, the Amelia Earhart Award, and the Society of Women Engineers Award. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California Irvine in 2009 and was a Shapiro Postdoctoral Fellow at MIT. Her research focuses on the suspensions of particles and swimmers as well as complex fluids. Arezoo is an Associate Editor of Physical Review Fluids, an Editorial Advisory Board Member of the International Journal of Multiphase Flow and the Journal of Non-Newtonian Fluid Mechanics. She was a co-chair of the 2022 APS-DFD meeting held in Indianapolis.

Ruth Cardinaels is an Associate Professor at KU Leuven (Belgium) and part-time Full Professor at Eindhoven University of Technology (the Netherlands). Ruth received her master and PhD degrees in Chemical Engineering at KU Leuven (Belgium). After completing her PhD in 2010, she continued to work in the Soft Matter Rheology and Technology section at KU Leuven as a postdoctoral research fellow until 2014. During this period she also completed the Specific teacher training in natural sciences at KU Leuven. Before her current appointment, she was an Assistant Professor at TU Eindhoven from 2014-2020. In 2013 she was a visiting researcher in the group of Prof. H. Stone at Princeton University (USA) and in 2024 in the group of Prof. B. Olsen at MIT (USA). She teaches courses on rheology, polymers and transport phenomena.

The research of Prof. Cardinaels is based on the idea that “Formulating multi-phasic materials and engineering their microstructure is essential to integrate various functionalities in the materials of the future”. Thereto, her group studies multiphasic polymer-based soft matter systems by means of rheology and various in-situ time-resolved structure characterization techniques (e.g. optical, X-ray and dielectric characterizations) during processing-relevant flows. Dedicated experimental setups such as flow cells, small-scale processing equipment and customized rheometers or rheometer add-ons are designed and developed. Recently, the development of a non-contact rheological measurement technique via air puffs has led to the foundation of the startup company Puform.

Ruth has been an Associate editor of Physics of Fluids since 2023, preceded by associate editor and section editor in rheology positions for AIP Advances and Current Opinion in Colloid & Interface Science. Since 2021 she is the President of the Belgian group of Rheology, and organizes local rheology events. She regularly teaches rheology in graduate courses such as the European School on Rheology and Registered Polymer Scientist program. Her research achievements have been awarded with personal fellowships from the Research Foundation Flanders (2005-2014), the Distinguished Young Rheologist and instrument grant from TA Instruments (2015), a selection as Soft Matter emerging investigator (2019), an ERC Starting Grant (2020) and an appointment as Mercator Fellow in the Materials for Additive Manufacturing priority programme of the German Research Foundation (2022).

Gordon Christopher is a Professor and Associate Chair in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Texas Tech University where he has worked since 2011. He received a BS in Mechanical Engineering (2002) and a BA in Film (2003) from Columbia University. He attended Carnegie Mellon and graduated with a PhD in Mechanical engineering and a MS in Chemical Engineering in 2008. Afterwards, he spent 2 years in the Polymers Division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology as a NRC Postdoc.

His research focuses on the development on study of complex fluids and interfaces through the development of novel rheological techniques. He has particularly focused on the behavior of particles at interfaces and the interfacial rheology of these systems, and on characterization of biofilm viscoelasticity at solid surfaces and liquid interfaces. His work in this areas resulted in his winning of the TA Distinguished Young Rheologist Award in 2017.

Gordon is an active member of the rheological community including being a member of The Society of Rheology for approximately 20 years, was on the membership committee from 2014-2020, served as the membership committee chair from 2020-2022, was the technical co-chair of the 2018 annual meeting, and being an active participant in Texas Soft Matter Meetings.

Safa Jamali is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at Northeastern University. Born and raised in Iran, he earned his B.Sc. in Polymer Engineering from Amirkabir University before pursuing an M.Sc. in Engineering Rheology through a joint program at the Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium) and the University of Minho (Portugal). He then completed his Ph.D. in Macromolecular Science and Engineering at Case Western Reserve University in 2015, followed by postdoctoral training at MIT. Since 2017, he has been a faculty member at Northeastern University. Safa’s research lies at the intersection of computational modeling, data-driven methods, and rheological sciences. His recent work explores development and use of AI/ML and network science methodologies to tackle complex problems in soft matter and rheology, aiming to develop new tools that advance both scientific understanding and technological application.

Safa has been a member of The Society of Rheology for over 15 years and during this time, he has served as: the technical co-chair for the 2024 meeting in Austin, chair of the membership committee since 2022, member of DEI committee and involved in launching Rheology Research Symposium (2018-2022), member of ad-hoc communications committee (2022), and member of the centennial committee since its inception. He co-instructed a short-course on colloidal gels at the annual SoR meeting in Bangor in 2021, and has organized/chaired sessions at multiple SoR/AERC/ICR meetings for the past decade. Most recently, he has joined the Journal of Rheology team with a focus on promoting the journal on social and digital platforms. With a genuine passion to promote both the science and the community of rheology and extending its reach by fostering a welcoming and inclusive environment, Safa is honored to be nominated to serve as a Member at Large.

Rossana Pasquino is currently an Associate Professor at the Department of Chemical, Materials and Industrial Production Engineering (DICMaPI) at the University of Naples Federico II in Italy and has been a member of The Society of Rheology for several years. She earned her Ph.D. in 2008 from Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II through a joint project between her home university and KU Leuven in Belgium. Following her doctoral studies, she spent a year as a Postdoc working between Belgium and Italy. She was awarded a Marie Curie fellowship which led her to move to FORTH in Heraklion, Greece. Additionally, she has been visiting professors at ETH Zurich, Switzerland in 2015 and at Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada in 2018.

Rossana Pasquino is renowned for her research in the rheology and scattering of complex fluids, with particular emphasis on using rheology as a tool to investigate morphology and microstructural properties. Her work encompasses various aspects of soft matter, including surfactant solutions, gels, polymers, and suspensions. She has authored over 80 scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals and actively participates in national and international research projects.

Rossana has a strong collaboration with industrial partners, including food companies and home care industries, to formulate and design products.

Since 2019 she has served as a Senior Associate Editor for Physics of Fluids, and since 2018 she has been a member of the Editorial Board of Soft Matter. Previously, she also served as an Editor for AIP Advances. She has played a significant role in the organization of major conferences, i.e. the Annual European Rheology Conference (AERC) in Sorrento, Italy, in 2018, the European Young Rheologists Symposium held virtually in 2023, and she was the main organizer of the Softcomp Annual Meeting in Salerno in 2022.

Rossana has delivered keynote lectures at numerous international conferences. Additionally, she has organized sessions and consistently served as a chairperson at SOR and AERC meetings over the past few years.

In recognition of her contributions, she received the Distinguished Young Rheologist Award from TA Instruments in 2018, along with several other national honors.

She is privileged to be nominated to serve as a Member at Large for The Society of Rheology.

Charles M. Schroeder is the James Economy Professor in the Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering and the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is a member of the Beckman Institute and holds affiliate status in the Department of Chemistry, Department of Bioengineering, and the Materials Research Lab. Dr. Schroeder received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, followed by an M.S. and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University working with Prof. Eric S. G. Shaqfeh and Prof. Steven Chu. Prior to joining Illinois, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University. Professor Schroeder has received several awards, including the Arthur B. Metzner Award from The Society of Rheology, the Publication Award from SOR, a Packard Fellowship, a Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, and an NSF CAREER Award. He is a Fellow of The Society of Rheology, the American Physical Society (APS), and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Dr. Schroeder has been a member of The Society of Rheology since 2001. Charles’s prior service to the Society includes serving as Technical Co-Chair for the 2022 SOR Annual Meeting in Chicago; member of the Metzner Award Committee (2022-2025); member of the SOR Membership Committee (2013-2020); Guest Editor for the Journal of Rheology, special issue on Ring Polymers; member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Rheology (2022-present); Session Chair for multiple sessions at prior SOR Annual meetings and ICR meetings; and instructor for a Short Course on Microfluidics and Applications at the 2013 SOR Annual Meeting in Pasadena. He also served on the Program Committee for AIChE Area 01J (Fluid Mechanics) for 10 years, in addition to serving as the 2014 Meeting Programming Chair. He is currently serving on the APS DPOLY Program Committee.

Dr. Schroeder’s research focuses on the non-equilibrium dynamics and rheology of soft materials, including polymers, lipid vesicles, and capillary suspensions, using single molecule techniques and optical imaging. His work aims to develop a molecular understanding of soft matter dynamics, bridging the gap between molecular properties and bulk-scale phenomena. Current research topics in molecular rheology are centered on understanding the non-equilibrium dynamics of entangled and architecturally complex polymers, as well as the conformational dynamics of lipid vesicles and the phase behavior of multi-component lipid membranes in flow. In addition, his recent work has focused on understanding the structure and dynamics of colloidal clusters and capillary suspensions using automated flow control via the Stokes trap - a new method for manipulating particles or molecules using only fluid flow.