Profile: Dr. Yamaguchi has a wide range of research interests including soft matter physics, fracture mechanics, tribology, adhesion science, geoscience and plant mechanics. He received his Ph.D. in Applied Physics from the University of Tokyo in 2007 in the group of Masao Doi. He then worked as a postdoctoral researcher at ESPCI Paris in the laboratory of C. Creton. He was Assistant Professor at the University of Tokyo from 2007 to 2011, Project Associate Professor at Kyushu University from 2011 to 2012, and Associate Professor at Kyushu University from 2012 to 2020. He is currently Associate Professor at the University of Tokyo since 2020.

Abstract: Wood is one of the representative living organisms standing on the earth's surface. It sustains its body with slender structures, resisting gravity, winds, rainfall, or seismic forces. In this seminar, I will introduce recent studies on mechanics and physics of wood as soft matter problems. After making a brief introduction of wood, I will discuss two topics done by our group; root-soil mechanical interaction of branched roots, and the pattern formation of tree bark. Through these topics, I will stress the importance of physics approaches to plants, in particular to wood.