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Ueli Töpfer is a doctoral researcher at the Laboratory for Soft Materials Interfaces at ETH Zurich. His work focuses on the physics of soft active matter, with a particular interest in adaptive microswimmers and nonequilibrium dynamics. He combines particle fabrication, advanced optical microscopy, and numerical modeling to uncover how microscale systems respond to external stimuli and exhibit emergent behavior. The research aims to explore soft active matter systems where microscopic building blocks consume energy and operate far from equilibrium. Töpfer develops photo-responsive, electrically powered colloidal microswimmers that propel and interact in a dynamically adapting environment. His studies encompass motion, collective organization, and the mechanical signals generated by these systems, striving to understand the fundamental principles of nonequilibrium behavior and to design synthetic model systems that mimic aspects of biological microswimmers for improved microscale transport.
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