Professor Michael Cates | Faculty of Mathematics

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2015-date: Lucasian Professor of Mathematics
2007-2022: Royal Society Research Professor
1995-2015: Professor of Natural Philosophy, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh
1992-1995: University Lecturer, Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge
1989-1992: University Assistant Lecturer, Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge
1988-1989: Royal Society University Research Fellow, Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge
1985-1995: Junior Research Fellow (1985-1989), Teaching Fellow (1990-1995), Trinity College Cambridge

Research

Mike is a member of the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics. He heads the Soft Matter research group. His current research interests include: flow of colloids, polymers, emulsions, gels and other soft materials; shear-thickening and rheology in dense suspensions; dynamics of soft glasses; flow of liquid crystals; general theories of active matter; cellular locomotion; phase ordering in active and passive systems; statistical mechanics of active particles; and numerous other topics. He recently completed an ERC Advanced Grant called ADNeSP: Active and Driven Systems, Nonequilibrium Statistical Physics.

Prizes and Awards

2021: International Member, US National Academy of Sciences
2019: International Member, US National Academy of Engineering
2016: Bingham Medal, US Society of Rheology
2013: Weissenberg Award, European Society of Rheology
2009: Dirac Medal and Prize, Institute of Physics
2009: Gold Medal, British Society of Rheology
2007: Fellow of the Royal Society (London)
2005: Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
1996: Fellow of the Institute of Physics
1994: Prix Franco-Britannique (Paris Academy of Sciences)
1991: Maxwell Prize and Medal, Institute of Physics

Publications

Generalized thermodynamics of phase equilibria in scalar active matter

AP Solon, J Stenhammar, ME Cates, Y Kafri, J Tailleur

– Physical review. E

(2018)

97,

020602

(doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.97.020602)

Sir David John Cameron MacKay FRS. 22 April 1967 — 14 April 2016

M Longair, M Cates

– Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society

(2017)

63,

443

(doi: 10.1098/rsbm.2017.0013)

Theories of binary fluid mixtures: from phase-separation kinetics to active emulsions

ME Cates, E Tjhung

– Journal of Fluid Mechanics

(2017)

836,

p1

(doi: 10.1017/jfm.2017.832)

Does a Growing Static Length Scale Control the Glass Transition?

M Wyart, ME Cates

– Physical review letters

(2017)

119,

195501

(doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.195501)

Spatiotemporal Self-Organization of Fluctuating Bacterial Colonies

T Grafke, ME Cates, E Vanden-Eijnden

– Phys Rev Lett

(2017)

119,

188003

(doi: 10.1103/physrevlett.119.188003)

Nonequilibrium dynamics of mixtures of active and passive colloidal particles

R Wittkowski, J Stenhammar, ME Cates

– New Journal of Physics

(2017)

19,

105003

(doi: 10.1088/1367-2630/aa8195)

Phoretic Interactions Generically Induce Dynamic Clusters and Wave Patterns in Active Colloids

B Liebchen, D Marenduzzo, ME Cates

– Phys Rev Lett

(2017)

118,

268001

(doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.118.268001)

Contractile and chiral activities codetermine the helicity of swimming droplet trajectories

E Tjhung, ME Cates, D Marenduzzo

– Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

(2017)

114,

4631

(doi: 10.1073/pnas.1619960114)

Entropy Production in Field Theories without Time-Reversal Symmetry: Quantifying the Non-Equilibrium Character of Active Matter

C Nardini, É Fodor, E Tjhung, F van Wijland, J Tailleur, ME Cates

– Physical Review X

(2017)

7,

021007

(doi: 10.1103/physrevx.7.021007)

Pattern formation in chemically interacting active rotors with self-propulsion

B Liebchen, ME Cates, D Marenduzzo

– Soft Matter

(2016)

12,

7259

(doi: 10.1039/c6sm01162d)