My main focus in research is to study emergent properties, such as glassy dynamics, self-organisation and pattern formation, during order-disorder transitions. Systems of interest include, but not limited to, granular materials, soft matter and biological systems.

In particular, the geometry and topology of a system can tell us a lot about order of a system and how it arises/wanes to accommodate the dynamic of the system. When a system undergoes an evolution towards order/disorder, it is natural for topological defects to arise, which are often regarded as a result of symmetry-breaking.

Our deeper understanding in topological defects can not only lead us to develop novel materials or enhance performance of existing materials (e.g. graphene or glassy materials), but also give us a clue to answer grand questions, like how life emerges and how the Early Universe was formed even!

S. Hong, M. A. Klatt, G. Schröder-Turk, N. François, M. Saadatfar. Dynamical arrest of topological defects in 2D hyperuniform disk packings. EPJ Web of Conferences 249, 15002 (2021)

S. Hong, D. Kim. Medium-range order in amorphous ices revealed by persistent homology. Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter 31 455403 (2019)