Biological, soft-matter & statistical physics group
Openings
Postdocs
Danilo Forastiere
I aim to understand the results of recent microrheological experiments by coarse-graining the mesoscopic dynamics beneath. During my PhD, I used the tools of stochastic thermodynamics across various scales to investigate the linear and nonlinear response of out-of-equilibrium mesoscopic systems (e.g., chemical reactions modeled via master or rate equations or dilute gases governed by the Boltzmann equation).
Marin Vatin
I am currently working on active polymer models. I am exploring the properties of these models using numerical simulations. These models can be applied to microcellular biological systems, or to macroscopic multicellular organisms such as colonies of worms. In parallel, I am working on molecular organisation in complex fluids, and on chemical kinetics.
Davide Revignas
I am currently studying the topological properties of proteins, employing various tools and models from statistical mechanics. During my PhD, I worked on soft matter theory, with a particular focus on the development of microscopic models for the elastic properties of nematic liquid crystals.
Ph.D. Students
Anna Braghetto
TBA.
Clemens Franz Vorsmann
I'm fascinated by soft matter science due to its many applications and interdisciplinarity. There I'm especially interested in the physics of polymers which in our current project we're investigating to improve nanofiltration devices. My skills lie in computational modelling using Monte Carlo (C++) and Molecular Dynamics (LAMMPS) simulations.
Davide Santolin
I am interested in nonequilibrium statistical mechanics and thermodynamics. Specifically, I am studying the phenomenon of metastability in systems that lack detailed balance and continuously dissipate energy, which manifests in various fields, from soft matter to electronic circuits. I employ stochastic thermodynamics to characterize this problem and uncover its underlying principles.
Alberto Raiola
My research interests are in the field of classical statistical physics, with applications to biological systems, soft matter, and active matter. In addition to analytical modeling techniques—such as stochastic processes and the renormalization group—I am particularly interested in employing numerical simulations, including Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics methods. Currently, I am working on models of magnetic polymers, which can be applied to study chromosome folding, a phenomenon thought to underlie epigenetic effects like cellular differentiation.
Past members
Leonardo Salicari
My current research topics lie on the boundary between statistical mechanics and biophysics. I'm currently working to characterize the refolding properties of a set of small proteins having a non-covalent lasso topology in their native state. This is achieved through Molecular Dynamics simulations of coarse-grained, structure-based models and both numerical and analytical studies of a modified Ising model (an extension of the WSME model).
Jean-François Derivaux
My research interests are centred around non-equilibrium thermodynamics and statistical mechanics, with special emphasis on stochastic thermodynamics, active matter and bioenergetics. Over recent years, I have been interested in the following topics:
- consistency of stochastic thermodynamics across different length scales, especially in stochastic chemical networks.
- fundamental description of mixtures of active and passive particles (eg bacteria in solution with colloids) and their application in colloids transport and in active engines design.
- Energetics of complex realistic chemical networks relevant to biological systems.
Those problems are tackled by use of analytical calculations (principally thermodynamics and stochastic processes theory) combined with numerical simulations (simulations of Markov jump processes, stochastic differential equations and PDEs/ODEs for deterministic systems).
