<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><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue;"><font face="HelveticaNeue"><br></font></div><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue;"><font face="HelveticaNeue">On Friday 24 October 2025 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="font-family: HelveticaNeue;"><font face="HelveticaNeue"><br></font></div><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue; margin: 0px; font-width: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;"><font face="HelveticaNeue"><b>Akash Unnikrishnan</b></font><font face="HelveticaNeue"><b> </b>(IFT UW</font><font face="HelveticaNeue">)</font></div><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue; margin: 0px; font-width: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;"><font face="HelveticaNeue"><br></font></div><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue; margin: 0px; font-width: normal; line-height: normal;"><font face="HelveticaNeue">will give a talk</font></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-width: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;"><div><h2 style="margin: 6px 0px 12px; padding: 0px;"><font face="HelveticaNeue"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Taylor-Couette flow: from table-top experiments to planetary patterns</span></font></h2><h2 style="font-family: HelveticaNeue; margin: 6px 0px 12px; padding: 0px;"><b style="caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68);"><font face="HelveticaNeue" style="font-size: 12px;">Abstract</font></b></h2></div><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue;"><div><div>The Taylor-Couette system-the flow between two concentric rotating cylinders, has served as a model problem for studying flow instabilities and transitions to turbulence. In the first part of this seminar, I will briefly trace its historical importance and discuss how simple variations in rotation rates and geometry give rise to a hierarchy of flow states, from steady Taylor vortices to complex wavy and turbulent regimes. Extending the problem to non-circular enclosures introduces additional confinement effects and even Moffatt-like vortices, enriching the dynamics further.</div><div>In the second part, I will outline how meshless numerical methods can be employed to simulate such flows efficiently without requiring structured grids. Finally, I will present results from simulations, some using these meshless methods, that exhibit vortex patterns, including one reminiscent of the hexagonal jet observed in Saturn’s atmosphere. While not being an exact planetary model, the similarity highlights the universality of pattern-forming mechanisms in rotating shear-driven flows.</div></div><div><br></div></div></div><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue; margin: 0px; font-width: 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-width: normal; line-height: normal;"><font face="HelveticaNeue">Maria Ekiel-Jeżewska</font></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-width: normal; line-height: normal;"><font face="HelveticaNeue">Maciej Lisicki</font></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-width: normal; line-height: normal;"><font face="HelveticaNeue">Piotr Szymczak</font></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-width: normal; line-height: normal;"><font face="HelveticaNeue">Panagiotis Theodorakis</font></div></div></div></body></html>