Chengling Li

Department of Physics, Emory University.

Hi, this is Chengling Li! I’m a Ph.D. student in Physics at Emory University. My Ph.D. advisor is Prof. Daniel Sussman, and our lab uses theoretical and computational techniques to study a wide variety of soft condensed matter systems both in and out of equilibrium. My research mainly focus the anomalous glassy behaviors in simple cimputational cell models (the Voronoi cell model and the Vertex model).

As exploring the scientific world, I’ve built an interest in complex systems, especially from the perspective of the potential energy landscape. The idea of the energy landscape constructs a bridge connecting the microscopic world to the macroscopic properties. The understanding of this connection requires physical pictures built from the statistical mechanics and various computational tools like machine learning. I have been studying extensively in the field and find that so many things are intriguing!

news

Jan 31, 2025 Chengling's first first-author paper is now published on PRL!

This work explores the unusual structural dynamics of biological tissue models. Using the 2D Voronoi model, we uncover a surprising link between its elastic properties and glassy dynamics.

A key finding is that, unlike conventional glassformers, the shear and bulk moduli increase with temperature, revealing an unexpected mechanical response. More importantly, we show that the structural relaxation time is directly controlled by the plateau shear modulus, suggesting that elasticity dictates how cells rearrange over time.

These insights lead us to propose that under-constrained systems may form a new class of “ultra-strong” glassformers, opening new directions in the study of biological tissues and complex materials.

Please see the paper Connecting anomalous elasticity and sub-Arrhenius structural dynamics in a cell-based model for details for details.

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Nov 27, 2023 Oreo has joined our family!
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Dec 30, 2022 Chengling's personal website is here!

Chengling started his personal website and would update his acdemic progress here from now on!

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selected publications

  1. Connecting anomalous elasticity and sub-Arrhenius structural dynamics in a cell-based model
    Chengling Li, Matthias Merkel, and Daniel M Sussman
    Physical Review Letters 2025