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Yuxuan Luo, a PhD student from the University of Melbourne, has been a member of the Australian Society of Rheology (ASR) since 2021.

“Rheology provides the framework to understand how materials behave under different forces,” Yuxuan explains. “Whether it’s flowing, compressing, or stretching, the ability to measure and model these behaviours is essential to design better industrial processes.”

A Passion for Rheology Sparked by Industry Needs

Yuxuan’s interest in rheology was first sparked in 2019 while he was a Master by Research student under Professor Peter Scales at the University of Melbourne. Working on shear rheology and its role in chemical product characterisation, Yuxuan quickly recognised the great potential of this field.

“Rheology has such a broad scope,” Yuxuan says. “It’s applied across industries from food and pharmaceuticals to paints, wastewater treatment and mining.”

Since then, Yuxuan has worked closely with the Australian chemical industry, contributing to product development and process optimisation.

Advancing Mining Practices Through Compressional Rheology

In 2021, Yuxuan started his PhD at the University of Melbourne under the supervision of Associate Professor Anthony Stickland, former president of the ASR. His research explores compressional rheology and its application in enhancing the dewaterability of mineral tailings, which directly impacts water recovery and mineral waste management.

Supported by the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Enabling Eco-Efficient Beneficiation of Minerals (COEMinerals), Yuxuan’s project aims to develop a novel dewatering technique that could significantly improve the sustainability of future mining operations.

Australia-Korea Rheology Conference (AKRC)

In 2021, Yuxuan presented on the topic of “Impacts of Clay in Mineral Dewatering” at the AKRC 2021 conference, which was organised by ASR. Two years later, he took on an organiser role for AKRC 2023. His presentation on “Pelleting Flocculation in Mineral Dewatering and Characterisation” earned him the Best Presentation Award that year.

Looking Ahead: A Commitment to Rheology and Industry Collaboration

As Yuxuan approaches the completion of his PhD, he reflects on how his journey in rheology is only just beginning. “Although I’m finishing my PhD soon, my journey in rheology has a long way to go,” he says. “Rheology is increasingly being used in different industries, and I look forward to seeing more industrial involvement in the ASR.”

Contributed by
Yuxuan LUO

Posted by ASR Admin

"It is our great pleasure to invite you to the 9th International Soft Matter Conference that will take place at Crete, Greece from the 29th of September to the 3rd of October 2025. The conference aims to gather scientists from all fields of Soft Matter and expertise in Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Engineering. Sessions will include of Plenary and Keynote presentations as well as contributed talks and poster and discussion sessions.
The venue is the Minoa Palace Hotel (5 star) and conference center located in an idyllic location by the sea, outside the city of Chania in Western Crete. Complementing the scientific program a rich social program will offer participants a taste of the culture, history and spectacular nature of Crete.
We look forward to welcome you to Crete in 2025."

For more information, please visit: https://ismc2025.org/

Thanks to the Howard See Student Rheologist Travel Award I had the privilege of attending the 19th International Congress on Rheology (ICR2023) held in Athens, Greece. The International Congress on Rheology (ICR) is a quadrennial “Olympics” for rheologists and is the premier international conference in rheology. It brings together the brightest minds in the field; and facilitates early career rheologists like myself integrating themselves within the wider professional community.

Figure 1: ICR2023 - my first in-person conference

The Conference began with a welcome speech by Professor Gerry Fuller, which notably included a very moving obituary for the many colleagues lost throughout the pandemic. A solemn reminder of how important these meetings are. The technical program that followed included 573 oral presentations as well as a further 293 poster presentations. Research topics presented spannedconstitutive modelling, the rheology of living systems, advancements in rheological techniques, and many more. Experiencing the breadth of different areas of work that encompass the rheological space is something that was hugely beneficial for me personally being in the final year of my PhD studies and on the precipice of beginning my career as a rheologist. Of particular interest for me was the talk given by Ronald Larson "From molecules to processing flows: multi-scale rheological modeling", The Bingham Lecture given by Jeff Morris" Dilatancy and the pressures of dense suspension flows" as well as Gareth McKinley's presentation "Distinguishing thixotropy from viscoelasticity in complex fluids using gaborheometry and parallel superposition rheometry". An added bonus to attending Professor McKinley's talk was experiencing the tidal wave of attendees that flooded in to hear him speak,in what was one of the smallest rooms in the venue - a crowd that would have been unheard of a year previously! 

Figure 2: ICR2023

My own talk at ICR2023 was my first opportunity to present my research in person at a prestigious international conference. My presentation, titled "Influence of macromolecular hydrodynamic interactions on the capillary-thinning of liquid bridges", used simulations of liquid bridges to demonstrate the influence of intermolecular interactions on the larger scale dynamical response of polymer solutions. Presenting to an in person audience and receiving multiple questions about my talk was very rewarding in a way that the virtual conferences of the last couple of years have found difficult to capture.

The location was exciting for my first international conference. Athens is the origin of many intellectual and artistic ideas; filled with thousands of years of history and many archaeological landmarks. As such, many evenings after conference sessions had concluded (and the temperature had finally dropped below 40 degrees!) were spent exploring the city. Personal highlights included seeing the Panathenaic Stadium, the host of the first ever Olympic Games; hiking up Mount Lycabettus, the highest hill in the city which provides arguably the best singular view of Athenian architecture; and of course no tour of Athens would be complete without view the Acropolis, the birthplace of modern democracy.

My experience in Athens at ICR2023 could not have been more positive. I would like to thank the ASR for their financial support, as well as the ICR organising committee for putting on such a fantastic conference. I'm already looking forward to the prospect of attending the next ICR in four year's time in China!

Contributed and written by:
Joseph Connel
January 2024

The Australian Society of Rheology (ASR) awards the ASR Medallion to members whose contributions to rheology have been internationally recognised as outstanding and meritorious. In its entire history, ASR has awarded only 7 Medallions to exceptional Australian rheologists. This year, the ASR Award Committee has awarded a Joint ASR Medallion to two distinguished rheologists for the first time in its history.

Prof. Billy Todd (left) and Prof. Peter Daivis (right)

The Australian Society of Rheology is delighted to jointly award the ASR medallion for 2023 to Professors Peter Daivis and Billy Todd in recognition of their extraordinary creative collaboration over three decades that has resulted in exceptional and admirable contributions to rheology and for their many years of distinguished service to the Society and to the rheology community in Australia.

Professors Daivis and Todd have spearheaded the development of non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations (NEMD) and are pioneers in the rigorous application of NEMD to the fluid dynamics, rheology and tribology of simple and complex fluids. Their work has led to the efficient computation of pressure tensors, heat flux vectors and transport coefficients for periodic systems and highly confined nanofluids. Amongst many examples of their remarkable ability to apply Statistical Physics to rheological problems, particularly noteworthy are their invention of the ‘Method of Planes’ technique for describing highly confined fluids, their contributions to the development of the 'Transient-Time Correlation Function’ methodology for extracting nonlinear rheological properties with reduced statistical noise, and their solution of the problem of simulating steady state elongational flows in periodic boundary conditions. Many of the methods introduced by Daivis and Todd have been included in modern software packages such as GROMACS and LAMMPS. Undoubtedly, the sustained and creative collaboration of Professors Daivis and Todd has profoundly impacted the evolution and the state-of-the-art of Molecular Rheology.

Professors Daivis and Todd have tirelessly dedicated themselves to supporting and promoting the interests of the rheology community in Australia. They have both served on the Society's council and the editorial board of the Korea-Australia Rheology Journal for several years. Daivis has been the Treasurer, Auditor for the Society, and Co-Editor-in-chief of the Korea-Australia Rheology Journal since 2021. Billy Todd was the President of the Society from 2008 to 2010, while Peter Daivis served as President from 2016 to 2018.

Professors Todd and Daivis were presented with the Medallions during a dinner function at the 12^th Australia-Korea Rheology Conference (AKRC2023) in Melbourne. On behalf of the Australian Society of Rheology, we congratulate Peter and Billy on their distinguished achievement.

Prof. Billy Todd (left) and Prof. Peter Daivis (right) receiving the award from Prof. Ahmad Jabbarzadeh (2nd from the right) and Prof. Anthony Stickland (2nd from the left) in November 2023