Karen Daniels

Bio

Professor Daniels joined the faculty of North Carolina State University in 2005, and has spent sabbaticals at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Göttingen, Germany (supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation) and at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore (supported by a Fulbright-Nehru Fellowship for Research and Education). She is a fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She has previously served as Chair of the American Physical Society Division of Soft Matter, and currently serves on the Editorial Board of Annual Reviews of Condensed Matter Physics. 

Area(s) of Expertise

Our group's work centers around experiments on the non-equilibrium and nonlinear dynamics of granular materials, fluids, gels, and disordered metamaterials, often tightly coupled with theoretical approaches. These experiments have allowed us to address questions of how failure occurs, how non-trivial patterns arise, and what controls the transitions between different classes of behaviors. Some of our studies have used idealized systems to provide insight into biological and geological phenomena, and others have been motivated by industrial applications or responses to climate change. Members of the group come from around the world and our diversity of backgrounds, identities, and interests have led us to careers in government and the private sector, as well as high schools, universities, and colleges. We strive to make our science accessible to all we meet.

Publications

• Dilatancy and its coupling to the kinematics in sheared granular media , JOURNAL OF FLUID MECHANICS (2025)
• The role of higher-order viscous and interfacial effects on the onset of surfactant-covered faraday waves , IMA JOURNAL OF APPLIED MATHEMATICS (2025)
• Soft matter physics of the ground beneath our feet , Soft Matter (2024)
• The Role of Electrochemical Oxidation on the Interfacial Tension of Eutectic Gallium Indium , ACS Electrochemistry (2024)
• Controlling rheology via boundary conditions in dense granular flows , SOFT MATTER (2023)
• Forecasting landslides using community detection on geophysical satellite data , Physical Review E (2023)
• Interfacial Tension Hysteresis of Eutectic Gallium‐Indium , Advanced Functional Materials (2023)
• Delicate memory structure of origami switches , Physical Review Research (2022)
• Gardner-like crossover from variable to persistent force contacts in granular crystals , Physical Review E (2022)
• Gardner-like transition from variable to persistent force contacts in granular crystals , (2022)