Editorial

Soft Matter Science and Engineering Laboratory - UMR7615

Soft Matter Science study matter for which the macroscopic properties are highly related with its microscopical structure. The present importance of this field is mainly based on the understanding and the controlled fabrication of matter at submicrometric scales. The fundamental concepts matured for about fifteen years, notably at the instigation of Pierre-Gilles de Gennes. They are founded on various domains as statistical physics, mechanics, hydrodynamics, surface physical chemistry or chemistry… They irrigate new fields as the physics of the living – marginal in our laboratory – but also a large number of various industrial problems, particularly for chemical industry (polymeric materials, cements, glues, detergence…).