Matilda Backholm

People

Assistant Professor

T304 Dept. Applied Physics

Full researcher profile

matilda.backholm@aalto.fi

Phone number

+358503087488

Honors and awards

Academy of Finland Postdoctoral Grant

Myönnetty rahoitus (henkilökohtaiset tutkimusapurahat) Living, Fluid, & Soft Matter Jan 2017

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

Palkinto tai huomionosoitus urasta Living, Fluid, & Soft Matter Jan 2017

Finnish Academy of Science and Letters Väisälä Starting Grant

Myönnetty rahoitus (henkilökohtaiset tutkimusapurahat) Living, Fluid, & Soft Matter Jan 2023

Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation grant

Myönnetty rahoitus (henkilökohtaiset tutkimusapurahat) Living, Fluid, & Soft Matter Jan 2023

Research Council of Finland Research Fellowship

Myönnetty rahoitus (henkilökohtaiset tutkimusapurahat) Living, Fluid, & Soft Matter Jan 2023

ERC StG

Myönnetty rahoitus (henkilökohtaiset tutkimusapurahat) Living, Fluid, & Soft Matter Jan 2023

Research groups

Living, Fluid, & Soft Matter, Apulaisprofessori

Publications

Shohreh Askari, Guillem Saldo Rubio, Anagha Datar, Heidi Harjunpää, Susanna C. Fagerholm, Matilda Backholm 2025 Journal of the Royal Society Interface

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Matilda Backholm, Oliver Bäumchen 2019 Nature Protocols

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

M. Backholm, A. K. S. Kasper, R. D. Schulman, W. S. Ryu, K. Dalnoki-Veress 2015 Physics of Fluids

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

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

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

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

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

R. D. Schulman, M. Backholm, W. S. Ryu, K. Dalnoki-Veress 2014 Physics of Fluids

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

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

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

Matilda Backholm, Morten Foss, Kai Nordlund 2012 Nanotechnology

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).

������