ISING LECTURERS-2023

Marc Barthelemy (Personal webpage )

L'Institut de Physique Théorique (IPhT)

Marc Barthelemy is a former student of the Ecole Normale Superieure of Paris (rue d'Ulm). In 1992, he graduated at the University of Paris VI with a thesis in theoretical physics titled "Random walks in random media". After his thesis, Marc focused on disordered systems and their properties, and since 1992, has held a permanent position at the CEA. Marc is now research director at the Institute of Theoretical Physics (IPhT) in Saclay and a member of the Center of Social Analysis and Mathematics (CAMS) at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS). His research interests comprise applications of statistical physics to complex systems, complex networks, theoretical epidemiology, and spatial networks. Focusing on both data analysis and modeling with the tools of statistical physics, Marc is also working on various aspects of the emerging science of cities.

Nir Gov (Personal webpage)

Department of Chemical and Biological Physics Weizmann Institute of Science

My group does theoretical physics of biological and out-of-equilibrium systems. We develop theoretical models for systems of different scales: for example, How cells change their shapes and migrate ? we develop theoretical models for how the active (non-equilibrium) forces in cells spontaneously organize to deform the cells into the huge variety of shapes observed in nature, and propel cells during embryogenesis and cancer.

Another example is: How do animals, animal groups, and humans make decisions regarding their direction of motion ? we develop spin-based models, similar to the Ising model, to describe the interactions among animals in groups and within individual brains, during navigation.

Rafael Prieto-Curiel (Personal webpage)

Complexity Science Hub Vienna

Uwe C. Täuber (Personal webpage)

Department of Physics, Virginia Tech

Uwe C. Täuber received his physics diploma and doctoral degree from the Technical University of Munich in 1992. After postdoctoral research at Harvard University and Oxford University, he joined the faculty of the physics department at Virginia Tech in 1998. His research interests in theoretical condensed matter and statistical physics reside primarily in the study of complex non-equilibrium systems, with applications that range from materials science to ecology and epidemiology. He was elected Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2013, was the inaugural Director of Virginia Tech’s Center for Soft Matter and Biological Physics from 2016 to 2022, and since January 2021 has served as Lead Editor of Physical Review E.

Jin Wang (Personal webpage)

Department of Chemistry, Stony Brook University

Prof. Jin Wang got his B.S. in Physics at Jilin University in 1984. He got his Ph.D. in Astrophysics at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1991. He then moved on to be a post doctoral research fellow at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Chemistry and Biophysics from 1991-1996. He became a guest scientist at National Institutes of Health in 1996-1997. He became vice president and senior analyst at the global strategic analytic Unit of the Citibank in 1997- 2004. He then joined the State University of New York at Stony Brook as assistant professor, associate professor and professor from 2004-present. He was elected as a foreign fellow of European Academy of Sciences, a fellow of American Association of Advancements in Sciences, a fellow of American Physical Society. He has published over 400 papers. His H-index is 60. His citations are over 13500 times. His main scientific contribution includes developing a universal landscape and flux theory for studying the dynamics and thermodynamics of the nonequilibrium systems with wide applications to molecular and systems biology as well as complex systems; nonequilibrium information dynamics and thermodynamics; the quantifications of specificity in molecular recognition; statistical foundation of the single molecule reaction dynamics; chromosome structural dynamics; evolution of biomolecular folding, binding and populations; early warning signals for critical transitions; the dynamics and thermodynamics of space time and black hole phase transitions etc.

Karoline Wiesner (Personal webpage)

Department of Physics and Astronomy University of Potsdam

Karoline Wiesner is Professor of Complexity Science at the University of Potsdam, Germany, and External Faculty of the Complexity Science Hub Vienna. With a PhD in physics from Uppsala University, Sweden, and after research fellowships at the Santa Fe Institute and the University of California, Davis, she joined the mathematics faculty at the University of Bristol, U.K., in 2007 and in 2021 the physics faculty at Potsdam University, Germany. Her research focuses on the use of information theory in the study of formation, maintenance and stability of complex systems. Most recently she has begun studying the stability of democracies. This and other projects are part of a long-term goal of building a quantitative framework for the dynamics of complex systems, firmly rooted in mathematics, physics, and philosophy of science. Karoline Wiesner held Visiting Research Professorships at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and at the Institute for Theoretical Physics at Lund University.

Her book 'What Is a Complex System?’ was published by Yale University Press in 2020.