People

Matilda Backholm

Assistant Professor

T304 Dept. Applied Physics

Full researcher profile

https://research.aalto.fi/...

[email protected]

Phone number

+358503087488

Honors and awards

Academy of Finland Postdoctoral Grant

Granted funding (personal grants) Living, Fluid, & Soft Matter Jan 2017

The Ruth and Nils-Erik Stenbäck Prize for career accomplishments in science

Award or honor granted for academic or artistic career Living, Fluid, & Soft Matter Jan 2017

Finnish Academy of Science and Letters Väisälä Starting Grant

Granted funding (personal grants) Living, Fluid, & Soft Matter Jan 2023

Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation grant

Granted funding (personal grants) Living, Fluid, & Soft Matter Jan 2023

Research Council of Finland Research Fellowship

Granted funding (personal grants) Living, Fluid, & Soft Matter Jan 2023

ERC StG

Granted funding (personal grants) Living, Fluid, & Soft Matter Jan 2023

Research groups

Living, Fluid, & Soft Matter, Assistant Professor

Publications

Toward vanishing droplet friction on repellent surfaces

Matilda Backholm, Tytti Kärki, Heikki Nurmi, Maja Vuckovac, Valtteri Turkki, Sakari Lepikko, Ville Jokinen, David Quéré, Jaakko Timonen, Robin Ras 2024 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Droplet Friction on Superhydrophobic Surfaces Scales With Liquid-Solid Contact Fraction

Sakari Lepikko, Valtteri Turkki, Tomi Koskinen, Ramesh Raju, Ville Jokinen, Mariia S. Kiseleva, Samuel Rantataro, Jaakko V.I. Timonen, Matilda Backholm, Ilkka Tittonen, Robin H.A. Ras 2024 Small

Droplet slipperiness despite surface heterogeneity at molecular scale

Sakari Lepikko, Ygor Morais Jaques, Muhammad Junaid, Matilda Backholm, Jouko Lahtinen, Jaakko Julin, Ville Jokinen, Timo Sajavaara, Maria Sammalkorpi, Adam Foster, Robin Ras 2024 Nature Chemistry

Light-triggered Time-Programmed Self-adhesion in Low-Hysteresis Hydrogels

Henri Savolainen, Matilda Backholm, Olli Ikkala, Hang Zhang 2024 ACS Applied Polymer Materials

Probing surface wetting across multiple force, length and time scales

Dan Daniel, Maja Vuckovac, Matilda Backholm, Mika Latikka, Rahul Karyappa, Xue Qi Koh, Jaakko V.I. Timonen, Nikodem Tomczak, Robin H.A. Ras 2023 Communications Physics

Long-term stability of aerophilic metallic surfaces underwater

Alexander B. Tesler, Stefan Kolle, Lucia H. Prado, Ingo Thievessen, David Böhringer, Matilda Backholm, Bhuvaneshwari Karunakaran, Heikki A. Nurmi, Mika Latikka, Lena Fischer, Shane Stafslien, Zoran M. Cenev, Jaakko V.I. Timonen, Mark Bruns, Anca Mazare, Ulrich Lohbauer, Sannakaisa Virtanen, Ben Fabry, Patrik Schmuki, Robin H.A. Ras, Joanna Aizenberg, Wolfgang H. Goldmann 2023 Nature Materials

Force-Based Wetting Characterization of Stochastic Superhydrophobic Coatings at Nanonewton Sensitivity

Matti J. Hokkanen, Matilda Backholm, Maja Vuckovac, Quan Zhou, Robin H.A. Ras 2021 Advanced Materials

Water droplet friction and rolling dynamics on superhydrophobic surfaces

Matilda Backholm, Daniel Molpeceres, Maja Vuckovac, Heikki Nurmi, Matti Hokkanen, Ville Jokinen, Jaakko Timonen, Robin Ras 2020 Communications Materials

Ferrofluid Microdroplet Splitting for Population-Based Microfluidics and Interfacial Tensiometry

Mika Latikka, Matilda Backholm, Avijit Baidya, Alberto Ballesio, Amandine Serve, Grégory Beaune, Jaakko V.I. Timonen, Thalappil Pradeep, Robin H.A. Ras 2020 Advanced Science

Viscosity-enhanced droplet motion in sealed superhydrophobic capillaries

Maja Vuckovac, Matilda Backholm, Jaakko V.I. Timonen, Robin H.A. Ras 2020 Science Advances

Micropipette force sensors for in vivo force measurements on single cells and multicellular microorganisms

Matilda Backholm, Oliver Bäumchen 2019 Nature Protocols

Designed inorganic porous nanovector with controlled release and MRI features for safe administration of doxorubicin

Simo Näkki, Julie T.W. Wang, Jianwei Wu, Li Fan, Jimi Rantanen, Tuomo Nissinen, Mikko I. Kettunen, Matilda Backholm, Robin H.A. Ras, Khuloud T. Al-Jamal, Vesa Pekka Lehto, Wujun Xu 2019 International Journal of Pharmaceutics

Wetting of ferrofluids

Mika Latikka, Matilda Backholm, Jaakko V.I. Timonen, Robin H.A. Ras 2018 Current Opinion in Colloid and Interface Science

Absence of single critical dose for the amorphization of quartz under ion irradiation

S. Zhang, O. H. Pakarinen, M. Backholm, F. Djurabekova, K. Nordlund, J. Keinonen, T. S. Wang 2018 Journal of Physics Condensed Matter

Oscillating Ferrofluid Droplet Microrheology of Liquid-Immersed Sessile Droplets

Matilda Backholm, Maja Vuckovac, Jan Schreier, Mika Latikka, Michael Hummel, Markus B. Linder, Robin H.A. Ras 2017 Langmuir

Slippery and never wet

Matilda Backholm, Jaakko V.I. Timonen, Robin H.A. Ras 2017 Europhysics News

Partitioning of caffeine in lipid bilayers reduces membrane fluidity and increases membrane thickness

Adree Khondker, Alexander Dhaliwal, Richard J. Alsop, Jennifer Tang, Matilda Backholm, An Chang Shi, Maikel C. Rheinstädter 2017 Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics

Cross-Linked Hydrogels Formed through Diels-Alder Coupling of Furan- and Maleimide-Modified Poly(methyl vinyl ether-alt-maleic acid)

S. Alison Stewart, Matilda Backholm, Nicholas A. D. Burke, Harald D. H. Stoever 2016 Langmuir

Amyloid-beta(25-35) peptides aggregate into cross-beta sheets in unsaturated anionic lipid membranes at high peptide concentrations

J. Tang, R. J. Alsop, M. Backholm, H. Dies, A. C. Shi, M. C. Rheinstadter 2016 Soft Matter

The effects of viscosity on the undulatory swimming dynamics of C. elegans

M. Backholm, A. K. S. Kasper, R. D. Schulman, W. S. Ryu, K. Dalnoki-Veress 2015 PHYSICS OF FLUIDS

The nematode C. elegans as a complex viscoelastic fluid

Matilda Backholm, William S. Ryu, Kari Dalnoki-Veress 2015 European Physical Journal E

Capillary levelling of a cylindrical hole in a viscous film

Matilda Backholm, Michael Benzaquen, Thomas Salez, Elie Raphael, Kari Dalnoki-Veress 2014 Soft Matter

Tangling of Tethered Swimmers: Interactions between Two Nematodes

Matilda Backholm, Rafael D. Schulman, William S. Ryu, Kari Dalnoki-Veress 2014 Physical Review Letters

Direct Measurements of Drag Forces in C. elegans Crawling Locomotion

Yegor Rabets, Matilda Backholm, Kari Dalnoki-Veress, William S. Ryu 2014 Biophysical Journal

Dynamic force patterns of an undulatory microswimmer

Rafael D. Schulman, Matilda Backholm, William S. Ryu, Kari Dalnoki-Veress 2014 Physical Review E

Undulatory microswimming near solid boundaries

R. D. Schulman, M. Backholm, W. S. Ryu, K. Dalnoki-Veress 2014 PHYSICS OF FLUIDS

Roughness scaling in titanium thin films: A three-dimensional molecular dynamics study of rotational and static glancing angle deposition

Matilda Backholm, Morten Foss, Kai Nordlund 2013 Applied Surface Science

Viscoelastic properties of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, a self-similar, shear-thinning worm

Matilda Backholm, William S. Ryu, Kari Dalnoki-Veress 2013 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

Relaxation and intermediate asymptotics of a rectangular trench in a viscous film

Oliver Baeumchen, Michael Benzaquen, Thomas Salez, Joshua D. McGraw, Matilda Backholm, Paul Fowler, Elie Raphael, Kari Dalnoki-Veress 2013 Physical Review E

Roughness of glancing angle deposited titanium thin films: an experimental and computational study

Matilda Backholm, Morten Foss, Kai Nordlund 2012 Nanotechnology

Amorphization of alpha-quartz and comparative study of defects in amorphized quartz and Si nanocrystals embedded in amorphous silica

Flyura Djurabekova, Matilda Backholm, Marie Backman, Olli H. Pakarinen, Juhani Keinonen, Kai Nordlund, Tzu-Ray Shan, Bryce D. Devine, Susan B. Sinnott 2010 NUCLEAR INSTRUMENTS AND METHODS IN PHYSICS RESEARCH SECTION B: BEAM INTERACTIONS WITH MATERIALS AND ATOMS

Matilda Backholm is an Assistant Professor in Soft Matter Physics at the Department of Applied Physics at Aalto University, Finland. Her Living, Fluid, and Soft Matter research team develops new experimental and analytical tools to probe forces and flow of mesoscale organisms, organs, and materials, as well as capillary and fluid mechanics phenomena. Prof. Backholm received her PhD in Physics (2015) from McMaster University in Canada, MSc in Nanoscience (2011) from Aarhus University in Denmark, and BSc in Physics (2009) from the University of Helsinki in Finland. She did her postdoctoral wok as an Academy of Finland postdoc in the Soft Matter and Wetting group of Prof. Ras at Aalto University.

During her PhD, Prof. Backholm developed a novel and highly sensitive micropipette force sensor to directly measure the viscoelastic material properties (PNAS 2013, EPJE 2015), microswimming (PRE 2014, Phys. Fluids 2014 & 2015) and crawling (Biophys. J. 2014) dynamics, as well as tangling interactions (PRL 2015) of the small nematode C. elegans – an important model organism in biology. Her quantitative, force-based studies transformed our understanding of how this worm moves and adapts to environmental changes. During her Academy of Finland postdoc, she further developed the micropipette technique (Nature Protocols 2019) to directly measure the miniscule friction of drops moving on superhydrophobic surfaces (Commun. Mater. 2020, Adv. Mater. 2021, Nat. Mater. 2023, Nat. Chem. 2024, PNAS 2024, Small 2024). Prof. Backholm has also worked on capillary phenomena (Soft Matter 2014, Langmuir 2017, Adv. Sci. 2020, Science Advances 2020), as well as experimental and computational surface science (Nanotechnology 2012, Appl. Surf. Sci. 2013).

Prof. Backholm is a co-editor for EPL and alumni of the Young Academy Finland. She is a coauthor of 30 scientific peer-reviewed publications and has been invited to give tens of seminars at internationally established conferences and universities. Prof. Backholm is an ERC StG laureate (2023) and a Research Council of Finland Research Fellow (2023), and her current research is also funded by the Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation (2023) as well as the Väisälä project grant by the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters (2023).