<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue;"><font face="HelveticaNeue">Dear Soft Matter & Complex Systems Colleagues and Friends,</font></div><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue;"><font face="HelveticaNeue"><br></font></div><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue;"><div><font face="HelveticaNeue">On Friday 20 October 2023 at 9:30 AM at the UW Faculty of Physics (Pasteura 5, Warsaw; room 1.40) we are hosting a seminar during which</font></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;"><b><br></b></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;"><font face="HelveticaNeue"><b>Anna Maciołek </b>(IChF PAN, Poland & MPI for Intelligent Systems, Germany)</font></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;"><font face="HelveticaNeue"><br></font></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><font face="HelveticaNeue">will give a talk</font></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;"><font face="HelveticaNeue"><br></font></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><h2 style="margin: 6px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68);"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Relaxation to steady states of a binary liquid mixture around an optically heated colloid</span></h2></div></div></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><b>Abstract</b></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Relaxation processes are fundamental phenomena in soft and condensed matter physics.The most research attention has been paid to relaxation processes close to equilibrium, which are now well understood.This is not the case for relaxation near nonequilibrium steady states. One of the basic questions here is what determines the time scales for a given system to reach a nonequilibrium steady state and to relax back to equilibrium. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">This problem is of particular relevance for light absorbing particles that heat up under laser illumination. In response to an emerging temperature gradient, the surrounding medium restructures giving rise to a variety of curious phenomena, which can be of great practical use. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">I will present our recent experimental and theoretical study on relaxation dynamics in a system which over the last decade has become a paradigm for studying various aspects of active matter, i.e., a Janus silica particle half coated by gold and suspended in a binary liquid mixture.</div></div></div></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><div style="margin: 0cm; background-color: white;"><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><font face="HelveticaNeue"><br></font></div></div></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><font face="HelveticaNeue">We warmly welcome everyone to attend the talk and the Soft Matter Coffee Break after the seminar, held in room 2.63 (2nd floor).</font></div></div><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue;"><font face="HelveticaNeue"><br></font></div><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue;"><div dir="auto" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><font face="HelveticaNeue">Maria Ekiel-Jeżewska</font></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><font face="HelveticaNeue">Maciej Lisicki</font></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><font face="HelveticaNeue">Piotr Szymczak</font></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><font face="HelveticaNeue">Panagiotis Theodorakis</font></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><font face="HelveticaNeue">Marek Trippenbach</font></div></div></div></body></html>