Active Matter: the synergy between Maths and Physics, Paris

May 26, 2025, 9:00 AM → Jun 13, 2025, 9:00 PM Europe/Paris

Institut Henri Poincaré

Financial support requests are now closed.

THE PROGRAM FOR THE 1ST AND 2ND WEEKS IS NOW AVAILABLE UNDER THE "SCHEDULE" TAB ON THE LEFT SIDE OF THIS PAGE. 

REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED

Organisers: Leonid Berlyand, Carles Blanch-Mercader, Eric Clement, Anke Lindner

Scientific Committee

• Laetitia Giraldi (INRIA Sophia-Antipolis, France)
  
• Jean-François Joanny (Collège de France)
• Raphaël Voituriez (Laboratorie Jean Perrin) 

Thematic 3-weeks programme at the Institut Henri Poincaré, Paris, May 26 to June 13, 2025. 

Week  1 - minicourses for students,

Week 2 - international conference

Week 3 - focused discussion groups

 

1st Location. May 26 to 28 & June 10 to 13: new IHP Perrin building.

2nd Location. June 2 to 6. Conference: Borel building, IHP: 

Beware: It was reported to us that scammers are sending to participants fraudulent e-mails about accommodation/fees. Please be particularly cautious about e-mails not coming from the organisers nor from an @ihp.fr address. 

Presentation of the programme

This program will bring lectures for graduate students and young researchers from May 26 to May 28, an international conference on the program's topic from June 2 to 6, and discussions in small focused groups (TBA) for the week of June 10 to June 13. This program will bring together physicists and applied mathematicians, promising a reciprocal benefit to both fields. Specifically, new minimal models can be developed by incorporating experimental data, and novel mathematical tools can be created to address the current challenges that are unique to active matter.

Three minicourses for students: Introduction to mathematics and physics of active matter.
May 26 to 28, IHP, Perrin building

The lectures will consist of three sessions, each lasting 1 hour and 30 minutes. The topic of the mini-courses will be on mathematical and experimental approaches to studying active matter. These lectures will be primarily aimed at graduate students and young researchers. The list of lectures is:

 

Lecturers
Leonid Berlyand, Pennsylvania State University	Eric Clement, PMMH-ESPCI, Sorbonne Université	Ignacio Pagonabarraga Mora, Universitat Barcelona

Beware: The 29th and the 30th of May are national holidays in France. 

Conference Week: June 2 to 6, IHP, Borel Building

List of confirmed speakers:

Adar, Ram Technion	Appert-Rolland, Cécile Université Paris-Saclay	Bechinger, Clemens University of Konstanz
Wan, Kirsty University of Exeter	Carrillo, José Antonio University of Oxford	Chaté, Hugues CEA-Saclay
Weiss, Mathias Universität Bayreuth	Duerinckx, Mitia Université Libre de Bruxelles	Fauci, Lisa Tulane University
Figueroa Morales, Nuris University of Colorado Boulder	Hoffmann, Franca Caltech	Laux, Tim Heidelberg University
Liu, Yanan,  Northwest University	Marciniak-Czochra, Anna Heidelberg University	Mellet, Antoine University of Maryland
Meunier, Nicolas  LaMME	Morozov, Alexander University of Edinburgh	Ohm, Laurel University of Wisconsin-Madison
Kraft, Daniela  University of Leiden	Perthame, Benoit Sorbonne Université	Peruani, Fernando CY Cergy Paris Université
Recho, Pierre Université Grenoble Alpes	Safsten, Alex University of Maryland	Secchi, Eleonora ETH Zurich
Soto, Rodrigo Universidad de Chile	Taute, Katja Leipzig University	Tang, Min Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Tournus, Magali Institut Mathématique de Marseille	Vlahovska, Petia Northwestern University

 

Focused discussions: Challenges in modeling active matter.
June 10 to 13, IHP, Perrin building

Discussion in small and focused groups on the topics of the programme will be organised. 

The preliminary list of topics for scientific group discussions:

• Stability and bifurcations in active matter
• Coarse-grained descriptions of active suspensions

Back to the main scientific event

Sponsors

Poster PC-2 TaMPhys.pdf

Mon, May 26

9:30 AM → 10:30 AM Motility and Transport of Microorganisms. Lecture 1

Lecture 1: Introduction Bacteria motility
Lecture 2: Revisisting colloid science
Lecture 3: Anomalous transport of bacteria suspensions

Speaker: Eric Clement (PMMH-ESPCI)

10:30 AM → 11:00 AM Coffee break

11:00 AM → 12:00 PM Mathematical tools in Active Matter. Lecture 1

Lecture 1: Deep Neural Nets and Classification problem.
Lecture 2 and 3: Homogenization theory and PDE models

Speaker: Leonid Berlyand (Penn State University, USA)

12:00 PM → 2:00 PM Lunch break

2:00 PM → 3:00 PM Special event: Order in Biological Development

This event is not part of the thematic programme "Active Matter: the synergy between Maths and Physics". We encourage graduate student and postdocs to attend it

Lecturer: Mark Bowick
Affiliation: KAVLI INSTITUTE FOR THEORETICAL PHYSICS, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA BARBARA

It will take place at Assemblée du Collège de France
Seminar Room: amphithéâtre Mireille Delmas-Marty (salle 5).
Adress: Place Marcelin-Berthelot, 75231 Paris cedex 05
Organised by: Prof. Jean-François JOANNY.

3:30 PM → 4:30 PM Theoretical and computational methods in active matter. Lecture 1

1. Simple models for active systems
2. Motlity and swimming at small scales
3. Mesoscopic models of active matter

Speaker: Ignasi Pagonabarraga (Dept. Condensed Matter Physics, University of Barcelona)

7:00 PM → 8:00 PM Microswimmers: The Fantastic Voyage is at Hand

Grand public event

It will take place at Bâtiment Perrin. Ground floor.
11, Rue Pierre et Marie Curie
75005 Paris

Speaker: Eric Clement (PMMH-ESPCI)

Tue, May 27

9:30 AM → 10:30 AM Theoretical and computational methods in active matter. Lecture 2

1. Simple models for active system
2. Motlity and swimming at small scales
3. Mesoscopic models of active matter

Speaker: Ignasi Pagonabarraga (Dept. Condensed Matter Physics, University of Barcelona)

10:30 AM → 11:00 AM Coffee break

11:00 AM → 12:00 PM Motility and Transport of Microorganisms. Lecture 2

Lecture 1: Introduction Bacteria motility
Lecture 2: Revisisting colloid science
Lecture 3: Anomalous transport of bacteria suspensions

Speaker: Prof. Eric Clement (PMMH-ESPCI)

12:00 PM → 2:00 PM Lunch break

2:00 PM → 3:00 PM Mathematical tools in Active Matter. Lecture 2

Lecture 1: Deep Neural Nets and Classification problem.
Lecture 2 and 3: Homogenization theory and PDE models

Speaker: Leonid Berlyand (Penn State University, USA)

3:30 PM → 5:30 PM Pique-Nique

Wed, May 28

9:30 AM → 10:30 AM Motility and Transport of Microorganisms. Lecture 3

Lecture 1: Introduction Bacteria motility
Lecture 2: Revisisting colloid science
Lecture 3: Anomalous transport of bacteria suspensions

Speaker: Eric Clement (PMMH-ESPCI)

10:30 AM → 11:00 AM Coffee break

11:00 AM → 12:00 PM Theoretical and computational methods in active matter. Lecture 3

1. Simple models for active systems
2. Motlity and swimming at small scales
3. Mesoscopic models of active matter

Speaker: Ignasi Pagonabarraga (Dept. Condensed Matter Physics, University of Barcelona)

12:00 PM → 2:00 PM Lunch break

2:00 PM → 3:00 PM Mathematical tools in Active Matter. Lecture 3

Lecture 1: Deep Neural Nets and Classification problem.
Lecture 2 and 3: Homogenization theory and PDE models

Speaker: Leonid Berlyand (Penn State University, USA)

Thu, May 29

9:00 AM → 5:00 PM Ascension Day

Mon, June 2

9:00 AM → 9:30 AM Registration

9:30 AM → 9:40 AM Welcome from Institut Henri Poincaré

Speaker: Dominique Mouhanna (IHP)

9:40 AM → 10:20 AM Two active matter models using an immersed boundary framework: self-avoidant droplets and single-point swimmers.

Speaker: Lisa Fauci (Tulane University)

10:20 AM → 10:50 AM Coffee break

10:50 AM → 11:30 AM Transport and self-organization in living fluids

Speaker: Matthias Weiss (Experimental Physics I, University of Bayreuth, Germany)

11:30 AM → 12:10 PM Directing active flows

Speaker: Petia Vlahovska (Northwestern University)

12:10 PM → 2:00 PM Lunch break

2:00 PM → 3:00 PM Special event: Nonabelian Topological Defects

This event is not part of the thematic programme "Active Matter: the synergy between Maths and Physics". We encourage participants of this program to attend it

Lecturer: Mark Bowick
Affiliation: KAVLI INSTITUTE FOR THEORETICAL PHYSICS, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA BARBARA

It will take place at Assemblée du Collège de France
Seminar Room: amphithéâtre Mireille Delmas-Marty (salle 5).
Adress: Place Marcelin-Berthelot, 75231 Paris cedex 05
Organised by: Prof. Jean-François JOANNY.

3:20 PM → 3:50 PM Coffee break

3:50 PM → 4:30 PM The effect of internal state in Chemotaxis and Phototaxis

Speaker: Min Tang (Shanghai Jiao Tong University)

4:30 PM → 5:10 PM TBA

Speaker: Prof. Daniela Kraft (University of Leiden)

Tue, June 3

9:00 AM → 9:40 AM Condensation and Synchronization in Aligning Chiral Active Matter

Speaker: Prof. Hugues Chaté (CEA-Saclay)

9:40 AM → 10:20 AM Change of bifurcation type in a 2D free boundary model of a moving cell with nonlinear diffusion

Speaker: Tim Laux (Heidelberg University)

10:20 AM → 10:50 AM Coffee break + Group Photo

10:50 AM → 11:30 AM Swimming in suspensions: from pattern formation to stability

Speaker: Laurel Ohm (University of Wisconsin - Madison)

11:30 AM → 12:10 PM Aggregation-Diffusion Phenomena: From microscopic models to free boundary problems

Speaker: Antoine Mellet (University of Maryland)

12:10 PM → 2:00 PM Lunch break

2:00 PM → 3:20 PM Poster Session 2

Axel Voigt - Phase separation and interface dynamics of mixtures of active and passive flows.
Forouh Maleki - Instabilities in a growing system of active particles
Jingyi Li - Arrested Development of Active Suspensions in Liquid Crystals.
Jose J Munoz - Inference of muscle contraction and surface friction in worm locomotion.
Léo Touzo - Run-and-tumble particles with long-range interactions: The active Dyson Brownian motion
Thi Phung - Optimal Control of Several Motion Model
Danqi Lang - Relaxations in glass-forming systems: the anti-correlation between excitations and locally-favored structures.
Birte Geerds - Twists, turns and surprising shapes: How a 2D liquid crystal influences geometry
Mandal Sayar - Magnetic Spinners in Bacterial Baths.
Min-Jhe Lu - Active Matter Modeling of Tumors: Mechanical Forces and Chemical Reactions in Cancer Progression
Raphaël Maire - Non-equilibrium interfaces: from suppressed to enhanced fluctuations
Paule Dagenais - Collective ratchetaxis in subconfluent cell monolayers
Soumyadeep Mondal - Coarsening Dynamics of Aster Defects in Model Polar Active Matter
Stefan Köstler - Arrested Coarsening: Multistable dynamics in active droplets
Zhouyang Ge - Nonmonotonic diffusion in sheared active suspensions of squirmers
Adnan Anwar - Inverse analysis of heart growth during morphogenesis
Italo Salas - Mixing by active carpets in confined environments.

3:20 PM → 3:50 PM Coffee break

3:50 PM → 4:30 PM Kinetic theory methods applied to active matter

Speaker: Rodrigo Soto (Universidad de Chile)

4:30 PM → 5:10 PM Mirror Langevin diffusion for sampling a non log-concave measure supported on a bounded domain

Speaker: Magali Tournus (Institut Mathématique de Marseille)

Wed, June 4

9:00 AM → 9:40 AM Mechanochemical Feedbacks and Symmetry Breaking: A New Model for Pattern Formation in Hydra Regeneration

Speaker: Prof. Anna Marciniak-Czochra (Heidelberg University)

9:40 AM → 10:20 AM Brownian particles in non-equilibrium baths

Speaker: Prof. Clemens Bechinger (University of Konstanz)

10:20 AM → 10:50 AM Coffee break

10:50 AM → 11:30 AM Initiation of motility on a compliant substrate

Speaker: Pierre Recho (CNRS, UGA)

11:30 AM → 12:10 PM Nonlinear stability and non-self adjointness in a free boundary model of cell motion

Speaker: Alex Safsten (University of Maryland)

12:10 PM → 2:00 PM Lunch break

2:00 PM → 2:40 PM Modelling of dense crowds with Mean-Field Games

Speaker: Cecile Appert-Rolland (IJCLab - CNRS - Univ. Paris-Saclay)

2:40 PM → 3:20 PM Bacterial chemotaxis in complex environments

Speaker: Katja Taute (Leipzig University)

Thu, June 5

9:00 AM → 9:40 AM Cell-cell Adhesion micro-and macroscopic models via Aggregation-Diffusion systems

Speaker: Jose Antonio Carrillo (University of Oxford)

9:40 AM → 10:20 AM Statistical Mechanics of Intelligent Active Matter: Optimal Transport, Synchronization, and Criticality in Bacteria and Sheep Herds

Speaker: Prof. Fernando Peruani (Cergy)

10:20 AM → 10:50 AM Coffee break

10:50 AM → 11:30 AM Environment-stored memory in active matter: a framework for extra-cellular matrix remodeling

Speaker: Ram Adar (Technion - Israel Institute of Technology)

11:30 AM → 12:10 PM Mean settling speed and Batchelor's formula for particle suspensions

Speaker: Mitia Duerinckx (Université Libre de Bruxelles)

12:10 PM → 2:00 PM Lunch break

2:00 PM → 3:20 PM Poster Session 3

Dowan Koo - Large time behavior of hydrodynamic flocking models with interaction potentials.
Eyal Heifetz - Swarm coherence mechanism for jellyfish
Finn Münnich - Pattern selection in a PDE model of mechanochemical interactions
Benjamin Perez Estay - Extremely large bacteria collective motion
Joaquín Ernesto Morales Palominos - Memory effects in Diel vertical migration: modeling fractional Brownian motion in Physics of active matter.
Juan Pablo Carrillo-Mora - Rotational depinning and activation dynamics of a chiral self-propelled robot
Maja Milas - Understanding stimulated tissue growth using agent-based simulations and Fisher-Kolmogorov models
Mathis Guéneau - Siegmund duality for physicists: from hard walls to absorbing boundary conditions
Mehran Erfanifam - Convection Flow Induced by Shearing of Spherical Granular Materials in a Split-Bottom Couette Cell
Oleksii Krupchytskyi - Change of the Bifurcation Type in a Free-Boundary PDE Model of Cell Motion
Shantanu Raikwar - Phototactic decision making by micro-algae
Tristan Cerdin - Counting active particles to quantify their dynamics
Yuv Agarwal - Curving the Path of Active Matter 
Kristiana Mihali & Dennis Worthmuller - TBA
Shambhavi Dikshit - Theoretical study on how activity and lamina alter chromatin organisation in variable confinements
Shunsuke Yabunaka - Drag Coefficient in Near-Critical Mixtures: Solving Hydrodynamic Fields with Improved Numerics
Spencer Dang - Effective viscosity of a two dimensional passive suspension in a liquid crystal solvent

3:20 PM → 3:50 PM Coffee break

3:50 PM → 4:30 PM Analysis of equations for living tissues and free boundary problems

Speaker: Benoit Perthame (Sorbonne Universite)

4:30 PM → 5:10 PM Active bacterial transport in complex media

Speaker: Nuris Figueroa (University of Colorado Boulder)

6:00 PM → 9:00 PM Conference Dinner

Fri, June 6

9:00 AM → 9:40 AM Hidden behavioural complexity in the navigation patterns of single-celled eukaryotes

Speaker: Kirsty Wan (University of Exeter)

9:40 AM → 10:20 AM Stochastic kinetic theory of dilute microswimmer suspensions

Speaker: Alexander Morozov (University of Edinburgh)

10:20 AM → 10:50 AM Coffee break

10:50 AM → 11:30 AM A Soft Matter Perspective on Biofilm Assemblies: From Structure to Rheology

Speaker: Eleonora Secchi (ETH Zurich)

11:30 AM → 12:10 PM Self-focusing of swimming bacteria in flowing nematic order

Speaker: Yanan LIU (Northwest University)

12:10 PM → 2:00 PM Lunch break

2:00 PM → 2:40 PM Mathematical analysis and numerical simulations on Models of Cell Motility

Speaker: Nicolas Meunier (Lamme Université dEvry)

2:40 PM → 3:20 PM Nonlinear Stability for chemotactic clustering with discontinuous advection

Speaker: Franca Hoffmann (California Institute of Technology)

Mon, June 9

9:00 AM → 5:00 PM Whit Monday

Tue, June 10

9:20 AM → 9:30 AM Bifurcations and Stablity

Speakers: Leonid Berlyand (Penn State University, USA), Eric Clement (PMMH-ESPCI), Tim Laux (Heidelberg University), Anke Lindner (PMMH-ESPCI)

9:30 AM → 10:00 AM Models coupling diffusive and non-diffusive components: Stability of patterns and emergence of singularities

Speaker: Finn Münnich (Heidelberg University)

10:00 AM → 10:30 AM Pattern selection in a mechanochemical model of pattern formation

Speaker: Szymon Cygan (University of Heidelberg)

10:30 AM → 11:00 AM Break

11:00 AM → 12:00 PM Bifurcations and Stablity

Open discussion on the questions below.

• What are the major questions on bifurcations and stability in active matter ?
• What kind of mathematical techniques for bifurcation and stability need to be develop and in what kind of problems.

Anyone else who wants to talk on this session is also welcome to participate in discussion.

Speakers: Alexander Morozov (University of Edinburgh), Prof. Anna Marciniak-Czochra (Heidelberg University), Eric Clement (PMMH-ESPCI), Ignasi Pagonabarraga (Dept. Condensed Matter Physics, University of Barcelona), Jose Antonio Carrillo (University of Oxford)

12:00 PM → 2:00 PM Lunch break

2:00 PM → 2:30 PM TBA

Speaker: Oleksii Krupchytskyi (The Pennsylvania State University)

Wed, June 11

9:20 AM → 9:30 AM Introduction to the session on Modeling Active Particles: Theory and Applications

Speaker: Laetitia Giraldi (CR INRIA)

9:30 AM → 10:00 AM Controlling swarms of micro-swimmers using collective patterns

Speaker: Laetitia Giraldi (CR INRIA)

10:00 AM → 10:30 AM A 3d mathematical model of the mucociliary transport

Speaker: Sébastien Martin (MAP5, Université Paris Cité)

10:30 AM → 11:00 AM Break

11:00 AM → 11:30 AM Mathematical models for flagellar activation mechanisms

Speaker: Irene Anello

11:30 AM → 12:00 PM TBA

Speaker: Spencer Dang (The Pennsylvania State University)

12:00 PM → 12:30 PM Arrested development and traveling waves of active suspensions in liquid crystals

Speaker: Jingyi Li (University of Wisconsin-Madison)

Thu, June 12

9:20 AM → 9:30 AM Mathematical methods for data science and machine learning

Speakers: Franca Hoffmann (California Institute of Technology), Tim Laux (Heidelberg University)

9:30 AM → 10:00 AM Learning PDEs from Data

Speaker: Franca Hoffmann (California Institute of Technology)

10:00 AM → 10:30 AM The connection between Analysis, Geometry and Combinatorial Optimization in the volume constrained MBO scheme for Data Science

Speaker: Fabius Krämer (Heidelberg University)

10:30 AM → 11:00 AM Coffee break

11:00 AM → 11:30 AM Random weights of DNNs and emergence of fixed points

Speaker: Prof. Victor Slavin (Ukrainian Academy of Sciences)