Humboldt Research Fellow at LMU

Stefano Zapperi, Professor of the Theoretical Condensed-Matter Physics and Coordinator of the Center for Complexity and Biosystems at the University of Milan, is a leading expert in the statistical physics of complex systems. His research interests include solid-state physics, biophysics and systems biology. He is perhaps best known for his contributions to the theory of the Barkhausen effect (the term refers to the noise associated with the motions of ‘domain walls’ induced in disordered magnetic materials by an increasing external magnetic field) and the statistical physics of plasticity and fracture, as well as for more recent work on the physics of protein aggregation and phenotype switching in cancer. At LMU he will devote himself to aspects of the physics of living systems, and will explore the physical principles that underlie essential biological processes at the level of the individual cell. More specifically, he will focus on the mechanics of cell motility and on the regulatory processes that govern biological pattern formation and the assembly of macromolecular complexes.

Stefano Zapperi is currently Professor of Theoretical Condensed-Matter Physics and Coordinator of the Center for Complexity and Biosystems at Milan University. He graduated in Physics at the University of Rome “La Sapienza” and received his Ph.D. in Physics from Boston University. Following a stint as a postdoc at the École supérieure de physique et de chimie industrielles (ESPCI) in Paris, he has held tenured positions at the National Institute for Condensed-Matter Physics at the University Rome and the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. In 2010 he joined the Institute for Energetics and Interphases (CNR-IENI) in Milan, and was appointed Professor of Theoretical Condensed-Matter Physics der in 2015.