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Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · 1d

Excited to be hosting the BPPB seminar tomorrow after a while (last semester I was teaching during seminar hour).
Looking forward to a stimulating talk by Gautam Reddy (Princeton University) on the physics of learning.
Hope to see some of you there

BPPB Seminar Series @bppbseminar.bsky.social · 1d

Please join BPPB Seminars on Friday October 10 at 11 US Eastern time for an exciting talk by Gautam Reddy @gautamreddy.bsky.social  on "Mechanisms for learning to learn in small transformer models". For more details, please visit sites.google.com/view/bppb-se...

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Reposted by Moumita (Mo) Das

NSF-Simons NITMB @nitmb.bsky.social · Sep 4

Are you a mathematician or biologist interested in exploring the potential of mathematical biology?

Join us for our upcoming workshop, Expanding the Palette of Mathematics in Biology!

Application 🔗 in reply ⬇️

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Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · Aug 31

Last night we celebrated my postdoc mentee Jonathan’s send-off! 🎉 An amazing colleague and friend to our lab, his research in the Lab spanned cartilage mechanics, cytoskeletal composites & rigidity transitions, with papers in Science Advances, PNAS Nexus, Soft Matter, Phys Rev Res. We will miss him!

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Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · Aug 17

Just back from the 2025 Soft Matter GRC = soft matter summer camp. Talks, discussions & power hour were 🔥! Huge congrats and thanks to Jenny Ross & Meredith Betterton for co-chairing and making it a big success. In 2 yrs I’ll co-chair w/ Eric Dufresne — can't wait!
Photo: with GRC and GRS chairs

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Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · Aug 6

Super excited about this new grant from the NSF–Simons NITMB with Wallace Marshall (UCSF)! Our project will use tools from abstract algebra and graph theory to model how mitochondrial networks form, reorganize, and function.
#MathBio #Mitochondria #AbstractAlgebra #NITMB #InterdisciplinaryResearch

NSF-Simons NITMB @nitmb.bsky.social · Aug 5

Representing mitochondrial dynamics with abstract algebra

Explore new NITMB-Supported Research from Wallace Marshall (Professor, University of California, San Francisco) and Moumita Das (Professor, Rochester Institute of Technology)!

Learn more at www.nitmb.org/supported-re...

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Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · Jul 26

Low key lab dinner last night to celebrate Keegan’s successful MS thesis defense and Youssof’s successuful PhD 2nd year presentation. Action shots from Youssof’s talk earlier in the day.

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Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · Jul 24

My Physics MS mentee Keegan Tonry defended their thesis today with a clear, thorough talk on spatiotemporal restructuring in active cytoskeletal composites. It’s been great to see them grow and thrive as a researcher and bring this work to fruition. Congrats, Keegan!

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Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · Jul 22

At the Hactive Matter 2025 Workshop (Hackathon) at UCSB, with my collaborators Rae Robertson-Anderson, Megan Valentine, Ryan McGorty and student/postdoc participants

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Reposted by Moumita (Mo) Das

BPPB Seminar Series @bppbseminar.bsky.social · Jul 16

Please join BPPB on Friday July 18 at 11 US Eastern time for talks by Lailai Zhu (Endowing Intelligence in Bionic Active Particles) and Sohan Kale (Mapping Cellular Tractions on Nanonets). For more information and to join our email list, please visit sites.google.com/view/bppb-se....

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Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · Jul 11

Just wrapped up 5 intense days at an NIH Innovation Lab on synthetic biology + cancer initiation. Hadn’t been in one in 4 years, forgot how stimulating they can be. Nothing like the thrill of bold, cross-disciplinary ideas with scientists you’ve just met—who may well become your new collaborators

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Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · Jul 4

I’ve recently stepped into the role of Director of our Physics PhD program. Colleagues who’ve served as PhD Program Directors or DGS — I’d love your thoughts on what worked, what didn’t, and what you wish you’d known starting out. Comment, email, or tell me next time we talk (in person or on Zoom).

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Reposted by Moumita (Mo) Das

rparthasarathy.bsky.social @rparthasarathy.bsky.social · Jun 11

I put together a rough presentation on how US science funding works, for my & neighboring research groups, mainly aimed at grad students. Lots of neat graphs! (Each could be a story of its own...) Quiz questions! I pasted it into a blog post: eighteenthelephant.com/2025/06/11/a...

An Informal Overview of US Science Funding

How does public funding for science work in the United States? How much money is there? Who gets it, and how? How much does a graduate student cost? Even normally, science funding is a rich topic w…

eighteenthelephant.com

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Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · Jun 10

Envious that colleagues at the TSRC workshop “Self-assembly in non-equilibrium systems” are hiking Bridal Veil Falls—but with my talk this afternoon, I stayed back to edit slides, + make a Broader Impacts highlight for NSF. I did hike Sunday, so just missing the “talking science while hiking” part!

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Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · May 8

End-of-semester Das Lab dinner tonight. I asked what we should toast to, and one of my mentees said, ‘To science.’ Couldn’t have picked a better one."

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Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · May 4

Had a great time speaking at @RITOsher about our work on cartilage shear mechanics and better models for insight into osteoarthritis. Packed room, lots of thoughtful questions, great conversations— thank you organizers and the NSF. Couldn't have done it #WithoutNSF.

www.rit.edu/osher/events...

Pfaudler Lecture Series: RIT's Role in a Better Model to Diagnose and Treat Osteoarthritis | Osher Lifelong Learning Institute

Register to attend: https://forms.gle/sTNkvZNgHP6YrxK89Presented by Moumita Das, Associate Professor, RIT School of Physics and Astronomy, College of Science

www.rit.edu

Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · Apr 21

Some very happy lab news from this past week— Sam has accepted an offer to join the Physics PhD program at Princeton this fall, and Luke will be heading to the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor for a summer REU in Physics. I’m super proud of and excited for them both! 🎉🎆

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Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · Apr 6

Physics and AST spring semester picnic -- collective excitations at low T :)

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Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · Apr 4

Super happy for this new paper from a collaboration with Itai Cohen, Jim Sethna, and Bulbul Chakraborty that just came out in Soft Matter. The first author, William Wang, was an undergrad at Cornell (now CS PhD student at Stanford) when he did the work and an absolute joy to discuss and work with.

Rigidity transitions in anisotropic networks: a crossover scaling analysis

We study how the rigidity transition in a triangular lattice changes as a function of anisotropy by preferentially filling bonds on the lattice in one direction. We discover that the onset of rigidity...

pubs.rsc.org

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Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · Mar 27

So happy and excited to see this work out! …. and to be a part of this cool story. This was a wonderful collaboration with Sophie Dumont, and her mentees Miquel Rosas-Salvans and Caleb Rux, which started when Miquel came to a seminar I gave at UCSF last year.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

SKAP binding to microtubules reduces friction at the kinetochore-microtubule interface and increases attachment stability under force

The kinetochore links chromosomes to spindle microtubules to drive chromosome segregation at cell division. We recently uncovered that the kinetochore…

www.sciencedirect.com

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Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · Mar 23

Das Lab action shots from days 4 and 5 at the #APSSummit25.
I (invited) and Keegan spoke in the Biological Active Matter IV session, Jonathan in the Non-Equilibrium Self Assembly and Self Organization II session, and Sam in the Macromolecular Assembly in Cells III: Agency session.

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Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · Mar 20

Das Lab at the #APSSummit25

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Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · Mar 19

Das Lab action shots from days 1 and 2 at the #APSSummit25. Aravind giving his talk yesterday; Alberto and Soumik giving their talks today; me, Alberto, and Keegan grabbing a quick lunch at the food trucks between sessions (my lunch consisted of churros and boba tea 🙂)

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Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · Mar 16

I am also chairing a Focus Session tomorrow (Monday) -- Mechanics of Cells and Tissues I -- starting at 8 am at the Anaheim Hilton, Pacific B (Ballroom Level).

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Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · Mar 16

Those of you @ the #APSSummit25 in Anaheim this week, please come check out talks by my mentees and me below. They are all at the Hilton.

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Moumita (Mo) Das @physbee.bsky.social · Mar 2

Was finally able to log into #SciENcv

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