In the Statistical and Biological Physics (SBP) group we investigate classical and quantum aspects of complex systems, both in and out of thermal equilibrium. Our emphasis is on the study of soft condensed matter and in particular of biological and biomimetic macromolecular systems.
Ongoing research projects in the SBP group include advancing theoretical and computational frameworks as well as conducting phenomenological investigations, in close connection with experimental colleagues.
This field of research is quickly advancing and is intrinsically multi-disciplinary: as a consequence, our theoretical physics-based methods are interfaced with modern developments in information theory (such as machine-learning algorithms), data mining, and high-performance computing.
Soft and biological matter at a glance
Soft and biological matter exhibits a variety of collective and cooperative phenomena, as a result of the dynamical interplay between many-body correlations, long-range interactions, and thermal or quantum fluctuations. The ultimate goal of our research is to understand how the complex dynamics of these systems emerges from relatively simple physical laws.
The internal interactions of (bio)molecules couple a huge number of degrees of freedom and generate a dynamics characterised by a wide range of length- and time- scales. As a consequence, progressing the understanding of complex and living matter necessarily involves applying and integrating theoretical methods with advanced high-performance computing algorithms, combining elements of statistical mechanics, mathematics of stochastic processes and quantum mechanics.
Our research lines involve developing original methods and models and then applying them in order to investigate specific soft/condensed matter systems of biological, medical and/or technological interest.
