Mechanics of soft matter: adhesion, fracture, and beyond: Celebrating the 75th birthday and achievements of Professor Chung-Yuen Hui

This themed collection celebrates the pioneering contributions of Professor Chung-Yuen Hui to the mechanics of soft materials, particularly in adhesion, fracture, and interfacial phenomena. The mechanics of soft materials plays a vital role in understanding and designing systems ranging from biological tissues and hydrogels to polymers, elastomers, and soft interfaces. Recent advances in experimental characterization, theoretical modeling, and computational methods have opened new avenues for exploring how soft materials deform, adhere, and fail under complex loading and environmental conditions.

This collection aims to bring together cutting-edge research that deepens our understanding of soft material mechanics across multiple length scales and disciplines. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Mechanics of adhesion, delamination, and detachment in soft materials
• Fracture, fatigue, and damage evolution in gels, elastomers, and biomaterials
• Interfacial mechanics and contact phenomena at soft–hard and soft–soft interfaces
• Nonlinear deformation, viscoelasticity, and rate-dependent effects
• Bio-inspired adhesion and soft interfaces in nature
• Computational and theoretical modeling of soft matter mechanics
• Soft material design for flexible electronics, soft robotics, and biomedical applications

By highlighting both foundational advances and emerging directions, this themed collection will honor Professor Hui’s enduring legacy and inspire future research at the intersection of mechanics, physics, and materials science.

Manuscripts should be submitted via the Royal Society of Chemistry’s online submission service. Please add a “note to the editor” in the submission form when you submit your manuscript to say that this is a submission for the themed collection. The Editorial Office reserves the right to check suitability of submissions in relation to the scope of the collection and inclusion of accepted articles in the collection is not guaranteed. All manuscripts will be subject to the journal's usual peer review process. Accepted manuscripts will be added to the online collection as soon as they are online and they will be published in a regular issue of Soft Matter.