Soft Active Materials: From Granular Rods to Flocks, Cells and Tissues

This ICAM workshop brought together junior and senior researchers working on the emergent properties of soft active matter. It focused on nonequilibrium collective behavior and locomotion in active systems, including mixtures of cytoskeletal filaments and motor proteins, the cell cytoskeleton, bacteria colonies, collections of cells in elastic matrices or living tissues, plankton in the ocean, insects or animal groups and vibrated granular layers. By bringing together researchers from a variety of disciplines we hope to stimulate new interactions and ideas in this rapidly evolving field.