Physics of Life Summer School 2022:
Interdisciplinary Challenges: from Non-equilibrium Physics to Life Sciences


​Purpose

​Non-equilibrium processes play important roles at many length scales, from controlling chromatin interactions within a cell nucleus to governing the collective dynamics of fish schools. This Summer School will bring together early career researchers and students working across these scales. By identifying common insights between disciplines, this meeting aims to promote collaborations and knowledge exchange among young researchers working in the Physical and Life Sciences. This summer school represents one of the two Summer Schools that will be delivered by PoLNET3 and is being delivered with the support of the Higgs Centre. 

Sessions and Format

This school will include talks given by early career researchers, as well as Q&A sessions and plenty of time for open discussions, aimed at creating a sense of community and allowing interaction with the speakers. Each participant is invited to present a poster and to contribute to the small-group discussions taking place after the sessions of talks. The chosen topics cover a broad spectrum of different research areas at the boundary between biology and physics, in which non-equilibrium physics plays a major role: this includes Biophysics, Cell Motion and Active Matter, Bioenergetics and Non Equilibrium Statistical Mechanics, Machine Learning in Physics and Biology and Disordered Materials. While diverse, these topics are all interconnected with each other. Speakers will be asked to make their presentations well accessible outside of their specific field, providing a broad overview of the different topics well-suited for a school audience. The complementing discussion sessions will further emphasise this exchange of knowledge across different disciplines. This school offers a unique opportunity for participants to discuss and create new interdisciplinary collaborations, fostering exchange of ideas and competences between the next generation of group leaders.​

Who should attend?

This school is specifically tailored to bring together early career researchers and students working on a broad spectrum of interdisciplinary topics under the overarching theme of non-equilibrium physics, while fostering the strengthening of a friendly and supportive community of young researchers.

Programme

Sessions and Speakers

​​Intracellular Phase Separation 
Thomas Quail (Max Plank Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics)
Jorine Eeftens (Radboud University Nijmegen) 
Louise Jawerth (Biological, Soft and Complex systems, Leiden)
 
From DNA to materials 
Grigory Tikhomirov (UC Berkeley) 
Simon Weir (School of Physics, Edinburgh). 
Anne Meeussen (School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard)
 
From single cell to morphogenesis
David Brückner (IST Austria, Vienna)
Fabio Giavazzi (Dept. of Medical Biotechnology and Translational Medicine, Milan) 
Silvia Grigolon (Sorbonne, Paris)
 
Tissues as disordered materials
Matthias Merkel (Turing Centre for Living Systems, Marseilles)
Varda Faghir Hagh (James Frank Institute, Chicago)
Peter Morse (Chemistry, Duke)
 
Active viscoelastic materials
Laura Alvarez (Dept. of Materials, ETH). 
Daniel A. Matoz-Fernandez (Physics of Living Matter Group, Warsaw) 
Berta Martinez-Prat (Dept. de Química Física, Barcelona), 
 
Energy consumption in life
Nikta Fakhri (MIT, Boston) 
Pierre Ronceray (Turing center for living systems, Marseille) 
Efe Ilker (Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems)
 
Response, control and stability
Nahuel Freitas (Department of Physics and Materials Science, Luxembourg)
Sara Dal Cengio (Interdisciplinary Laboratory of Physics, Grenoble-Alpes) 
Edgar Roldán (ICTP-Quantitative Life Science) 
 
Disordered Materials
Lisa Tran (Department of Physics, Utrecht University)
Alice Thorneywork (Dept of Physics, Cambridge)
Francesco Caravelli (Los Alamos National Lab) 
 
ML: scaling theory and algorithmic transitions
Pierfrancesco Urbani (IPhT Saclay) 
Francesco Cagnetta (EPFL Lausanne) 
Yasaman Bahri (Google Research)
 
Bayesian methods for learning and biology
Marylou Gabrié (Flatiron Inst, New York) 
Anna Paola Muntoni (Politecnico, Torino)
​Aurélien Decelle (Universidad Complutense de Madrid)
 
From micro to macro-scopically active matter
Alessandro Manacorda (University of Luxembourg) ​
Stefania Melillo (CNR, Rome) 
Alexandre Nicolas (Université de Lyon & Explain)
 
Emergent behaviours in biology/biophysics
Lindsay Kerr (Institute of Genetic and Cancer, Edinburgh)
Jon Garamella (LumiraDx)
Linus Schumacher (Centre for Regenerative Medicine, Edinburgh)


​Registration and Abstract Submission

Registration will open soon. Please complete the registration form in order to reserve your place before 15 January 2022. All attendees are encouraged to submit an abstract for a poster relating to their research. For students who are early on in their projects and do not yet have any results to present, we encourage a poster presentation explaining your research area and intended study to maximise networking opportunity. All posters and abstracts will be accepted. 
​
Please note that there is a registration fee of £150 which will be payable in January 2022. This fee will cover all lunches and refreshments and, for a limited number of attendees that are travelling to Edinburgh for the school, will also cover for accommodation in a B&B for 4 nights. Free accommodation will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.  For any enquiries relating to this event, please email: k.h.baker@dur.ac.uk. 

    Physics of Life Summer School 2022 Registration Form

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Directions

The meeting will take place at the University of Edinburgh in the James Clerk Maxwell Building, Kings Buildings. 15 minutes by bus from Edinburgh city centre. Details on getting from the City Centre to JCMB here. A map of the Kings Buildings campus here. Edinburgh is well served by trains and planes.

Funded by:                                                                                                 Managed bY: