Roster of Participants

I am a theorist. My research focuses on harnessing the inherent physics of physical systems to train them, uncovering natural processes that mirror the ‘learning’ seen in artificial neural networks, and providing a framework for understanding adaptive behaviors in biological systems.

I am a theorist interested in utilizing and advancing 3D mechanical models to study the biomechanics of cell migration (delamination) in living epithelial tissues, along with prior investigations on cytoskeletal network self-assembly using mean field approaches and protein folding via coarse-grained simulations.

I am a theorist who works on behavior of information processing systems when they are driven out of equilibrium.

I am a theorist and interested in the effect of elastic substrate deformation on the directed motion of motile cells. In addition to that I do PIV analysis of actomyosin gels and aim to understand how feedback between active stress and elastic strain can cause alignment in the network.

I am a theorist interested in the role of curvature on the nucleation, growth, and ground state of crystals. Specifically, I’m interested in the effect of intrinsic curvature such as that present on the surface of cones on the forces between topological defects.

I’m a theorist in training and I’m interested in biological problems related to differential geometry, continuum mechanics, fluid mechanics, and soft matter physics.

I am a theorist working to understand the active transport of passive colloids and activity-driven colloidal assembly. I develop computational algorithms and continuum kinetic theory to study such interactions between active (polar and nematic) and passive (rigid and deformable) entities.

I’m an experimentalist and I’m currently studying collective motion of E. coli bacteria under modulation of activity by external light source.

I am a theorist interested in taking inspiration from biological matter to design new metamaterials with exciting properties, as well as in algorithms that design such materials given a previously specified requirement.

I am a theorist who studies the statistics of many particles diffusing in a common, space-time random environment which introduces correlations in the movement of nearby particles. My work has shown that outlying particles display novel scalings in their fluctuations which can be used to study the underlying environment.

I am a theorist. In my research, I search for emergent rules for how stem cells make decisions (division, differentiation, loss) in tissues to maintain homeostasis or recover from injury. To this end, I develop stochastic cell-based models (including 2D Voronoi models) to study the role of mechanical or chemical feedback, providing a lens In my research, I search for emergent rules for how stem cells make fate decisions (division, differentiation, loss) in tissues to maintain homeostasis or recover from injury. To this end, I develop stochastic models (including 2D Voronoi models) and develop quantitative data analysis methods to help decipher in vivo mouse data from my collaborators for tissues such as skin and oesephegus.

I am a theorist interested in dynamical field
theories that describe non-equilibrium systems. My current
focuses are on understanding critical behaviour near absorbing
state phase transitions, and characterising phase separation in
active matter systems.

I am a theorist focused on using continuum modeling and molecular dynamics simulations to enhance our understanding of the assembly and budding of enveloped viruses.

I am a theorist studying time-irreversibility in active matter and non-equilibrium statistical physics. Right now, I am focusing on ratchet currents and entropy production in active matter, and the non-equilibrium statistical field theory of multi-temperature mixtures.

I am an experimentalist interested in researching active matter physics, with a particular emphasis on understanding how cells self-organize and how this relates to the nematic order observed in liquid crystals.

I am a theorist. I work in active matter and have spent the last two years focused on active nematic liquid crystals. My recent work focused on how active forces can change the interaction of particles and walls.

I am a theoretical physicists working on the rheology of biological tissues such as epithelia. I study the response to perturbations on minimal models of tissues to delineate their mechanical properties.

I am a theorist interested in how cell growth is realized by complex stochastic biological process.

I am a theorist with interests in soft condensed matter and biological physics. My research focuses on the effect of actin in mechanobiology, and self-organization in active matter systems.

I am an experimentalist. In my current project, I am interested in understanding how endothelial cells sense flow using microfluidics and microscopy.

I am a theorist currently working on elastically interacting, dense active systems to investigate novel noise-induced collective phenomena. Additionally, I have a keen interest in exploring pattern formation processes, ranging from actomyosin dynamics to tissue-level organization.

I am an experimentalist working on Nonequilibrium dynamics of disordered mechanical systems and active solids: from physical aging and avalanche dynamics to memory formation and emergent computation.

I am a theorist working on developing coarse-grained particle-based models for dynamic out-of-equilibrium biomolecular processes in the cell. My main focus is cytoskeletal dynamics and organisation, trying to link the microscopic building block properties of different cytoskeleton filaments to their collective self-organisation into functional structures at the cell scale.

I am an experimentalist interested in bio-molecular condensates and their dynamics due to chemical interactions. I am especially interested in understanding the role thermodynamics and phase diagrams play in deciding this dynamics.

I am a theorist interested in biological and soft matter physics, particularly modeling and analysis of individual cells and monolayers in complex environments. During my Ph.D. studies, I have been working on the mechanical interactions between adherent cells and their surrounding matrix.

I am a theorist interested in nonequilibrium statistical mechanics, the many-body properties of systems with non-reciprocity, and applications to biological and neural systems.

I am a theorist interested in studying locally driven fluidic networks in biological systems including peristaltic pumping in the lymphatic system and contraction-induced flows in the jellyfish gastrovascular system.

I am a theorist whose research interests encompass self-organization and phase transitions in various soft matter and living systems: patchy particles, polymer gels, biomolecular condensates, etc.

I am a theorist interested in using statistical physics theory to study how order emerges in the process of embryonic development and specifically cell fate determination.

I am an experimentalist with interests in the physics of biological and biologically-inspired materials.

My theoretical research interests span a broad spectrum of classical and quantum condensed matter. These range from entropy-dominated liquid crystals, colloids, membranes, rubber and other “soft” matter to quantum matter, such as superconductors, magnets, degenerate atomic gases, quantum Hall and other topological states of matter, most recently fractons and their interplay of elasticity duals. I aim to understand the nature of phases and phase transitions exhibited by these systems, with the unifying theme of collective universal behavior that emerges at long scales and low energies, driven by a combination of strong interactions, fluctuations, and/or local heterogeneity.

I am an experimentalist. I study the physics of matter in motion. At Cornell, my research has focused on building microscopic robots, controlling the shear thickening behavior of microscopic and nanoscopic particles suspended in a fluid, exploring the mechanics of materials ranging from biological tissues to origami inspired metamaterials, discovering the aerodynamic and neuromuscular mechanisms used by insects during flapping flight, and determining how audiences at heavy metal concerts coordinate their movement. Understanding how emergent behaviors arise from the microscopic rules governing these systems remains one of the biggest challenges in Physics.

I use theoretical and computational tools to understand how the properties of lipid bilayers emerge from their constituents and how the resulting membranes contribute to a host of biological functions.

I am a theoretical biophysicist - our group is particularly interested in using soft and active matter theory to understand multicellular self-organization.

I am interested in theoretical and computational soft and living matter.

I am a theorist who studies the collective behavior of group of cells in biological tissues as well as deformation and failure in disordered solids ranging from glasses to granular materials. We use computational and theoretical techniques and extend tools from statistical and soft matter physics to understand and predict emergent phenomena in these far from equilibrium systems, and work closely with experimentalists and scientists around the globe.

I am a theoretical physicist interested in the emergent behavior of active matter. My group employs theory and computation and makes complementary use of bottom-up modeling and top-down phenomenology to investigate the self-organized structural and mechanical properties of these complex systems.

I am an experimentalist interested in the interplay between mechanics, genes, and geometry in organ development. My lab studies the collective cell behaviors and mechanical interactions across tissue layers that govern morphogenesis in embryonic visceral organs. To do so, we combine whole-organ live imaging, genetic tools, computation, and analytic approaches from soft matter physics.

I am an experimentalist. I use highly interdisciplinary approaches including theory and experiments to understand how computation is embodied in biological matter. Examples include cognition in single cell protists, morphological computing in animals with no neurons and origins of complex behavior in multi-cellular systems. Broadly, I invent new tools for studying non-model organisms with significant focus on life in the ocean - addressing fundamental questions of cell biology in context of its ecology? I am also dedicated towards inventing, building and scaling-up “frugal science” tools to democratize access to science such as Foldscope, diagnostics of deadly diseases like malaria and convening global citizen science communities to tackle planetary scale environmental challenges such as mosquito or plankton surveillance by citizen sailors mapping the ocean in the age of Anthropocene.

I am a theorist whose group’s interests span several areas at the interface between science, engineering and applied mathematics. Recent work encompasses biophysics, active matter, machine learning, robotics, metamaterials, topological insulators, hydrodynamics, dynamical systems and soft materials. Often the rich phenomenology of these complex systems arises from the interplay between strong non-linearities, disorder and dynamics far from equilibrium that we explore using analytical and numerical tools in close collaboration with experimentalists.

I am a theorist. I apply techniques from theoretical and computational physics to problems in soft condensed matter and biophysics. I am currently particularly interested in active matter and mechanobiology.