Seth Fraden Research Group

Brandeis University

Fraden explores how collections of small components produce larger patterns and materials. His soft-matter group combines experiment, theory, and simulation across physics, chemistry, biology, and materials science. Research directions include active matter, coupled nonlinear chemical oscillators, microfluidics, protein crystallization, and colloidal liquid crystals. Other projects examine DNA-directed colloid assembly and DNA origami, where molecular interactions can be used to organize structures. For prospective researchers, the appeal is investigating emergence through tangible experimental systems: controlled interactions between particles or chemical units can generate collective behavior that no isolated component exhibits.