Strengthening Your Networks and Responding to Stress and Strain: What Humans in STEM Can Learn from Soft Matter and Biological Materials

This paper, inspired by the contributions of William B. Russel as both a rheologist and mentor, provides strategies for resilience and success in STEM fields that are inspired by soft materials, colloidal dispersions, polymeric gels, and biological networks. Three phenomena that are important in understanding the structure, dynamics, and rheology of networks are presented, and we discuss the relationship between these phenomena and approaches for developing networks of mentoring and strategies for persistence. We make the case for building mentoring networks with many junctions and ensuring that the junction points are strong enough to support stress. The concept of “multiple mentoring” and analogies with composite networks are also described. Finally, approaches to providing resilience and preventing failure at high strains are also described. The strategies presented are based on recent research on effective mentoring models and evidence-based approaches to promote motivation and achievement in STEM fields.