We work at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP, Trieste, Italy), within the Quantitative Life Sciences section. ICTP’s mission is to develop excellent science worldwide, with special focus on research and education with scientists from developing countries.

Our main research interests are stochastic thermodynamics,  biophysics and active matter.
We investigate the thermodynamic properties of processes that take place in the microscopic world, where the dynamics is strongly affected by thermal fluctuations. Our work on non-equilibrium thermodynamics provides novel insights on the fluctuations of biological processes that occur at mesoscopic scales, such as RNA transcription, sound transduction, and energy transduction by living matter. We have participated in the construction of colloidal heat engines and information engines using optical tweezers.
Our team develops theory, performs stochastic numerical simulations and takes an active part in conception, design, and analysis of experiments.

Key research interests:

• Thermodynamics of life processes:  We have 15+ years of experience in investigating  non-equilibrium thermodynamic properties of life processes at the microscale, such as:
  — the heat dissipation and entropy exchanged by cells with their environment
  — spontaneous oscillations and sound transduction by ear hair-cell bundles;
  — the motion of molecular motors e.g. RNA polymerases during transcriptional pauses;
  — drug resistance development in noisy environments;
  — energy extraction from bacterial baths.
• Stochastic thermodynamics with Martingales: We have unveiled universal properties of stochastic heat, work and entropy production for systems described by few non-equilibrium degrees of freedom. We employ martingale theory, widely used in finance and mathematics, to describe the fluctuating nature of thermodynamic fluxes at the mesoscale (Tutorial Review).
• Stochastic processes: We develop theory describing stopping-time (e.g. first-passage time) and extreme-value statistics of correlated stochastic processes.
• Experimental construction of heat engines with Optical Tweezers : We study the energetic fluxes of colloidal heat engines and use our theory to inspire novel designs of artificial nanomachines ( comprehensive review )

We work in collaboration with researchers from different continents, including those in developing countries.
See for example the recent Perspective article on The Need for Statistical Physics in Africa.

We welcome applications of outstanding, independent and highly-motivated Msc/PhD students and postdoctoral researchers. For inquiries about research opportunities please contact me:  edgar(at)ictp(dot)it

Key recent publications: