Etienne Fodor has recently joined the University of Luxembourg as Professor in Physics of Active Matter.
Prof. Etienne Fodor shares with us his background, research activities and future challenges.
Could you introduce yourself?
“I am a theoretical physicist with research interests lying at the crossroad of statistical mechanics, soft matter and biophysics. I have just started working at the University as an ATTRACT Fellow, funded by the Fonds National de la Recherche (FNR) for the five-year project “Statistical Mechanics of Active Matter”, and I have been recruited as an Assistant Professor in the University of Cambridge. Before that, I was an Oppenheimer Research Fellow at the Université Paris Diderot during three years, working in the Department of Theoretical Physics and Applied Mathematics. Even before, I did my PhD at Department of Physics and Materials Science (DPhyMS) on the nonequilibrium properties of active systems.”
What is your research field?
“My work focuses mainly on the physics of active matter. Active matter is a class of nonequilibrium systems where each microscopic constituent consumes energy to produce an autonomous, directed motion. With this definition, most of living systems can actually be regarded as a part of active matter, so that there is an important overlap between biophysics and the physics of active matter. Interestingly, active matter also encompasses synthetic systems, such as self-catalytic colloids in a fuel bath, and social systems, such as groups of animals and even human crowds.
A lot of excitement in active matter comes from the fact that the combination of individual self-propulsion and interactions between individuals leads to collective effects without any equilibrium equivalent. For instance, a collective motion with long-ranged orientational order, as observed in bird flocks. An important question is then whether there exist any universal features in active matter, or at least whether one can define sub-classes of active systems with similar properties. For instance, under which conditions the same type of collective behaviour can be observed in swarms of bacteria, fish schools and human crowds?”
Why did you join the University of Luxembourg? Why the ATTRACT Fellowship has been considered?
“The physics of active and living matter has been identified recently as a part of the national research priorities in Luxembourg. This clearly indicates that an important effort will be devoted to developing research in this field in the next future. As an illustration, the Fonds National de la Recherche (FNR) has recently funded a Doctoral Training Unit (interface of physics and biology) specifically focused on active matter, which will lead to 14 PhD projects at the DTU Active. These projects will build on existing collaborations between the Department of Physics and Materials Science (DPhyMS) and the Luxembourg Centre for System Biomedicine (LCSB), and they will also lead to establish novel synergies between these institutions.
The ATTRACT Fellowship provides the perfect opportunity to build an independent research team within the University of Luxembourg. The motivation is to train the next generation of researchers in active matter who will be able to disseminate and promote the research conducted in Luxembourg within a broader community worldwide. Within five years, the aim is then to establish a competitive and ambitious research programme, which will keep attracting talented researchers even beyond the duration of the project.”
With your ATTRACT grant, you are able to set up your own research group. How did you prepare for this new experience?
“For theoretical research, the main challenge in building your own group is presumably to recruit talented and motivated students and Postdocs, with whom you will be able to develop an innovative research programme. To this aim, I have clearly benefited from the support of my research network, which put me in contact with great candidates even before the start of my ATTRACT grant. Moreover, the start of DTU Active, which led to advertise a series of PhD positions this summer, was also very helpful to increase the visibility of the group. Overall, I have recruited two PhD students, Yiwei Zhang and Atul Tanaji Mohite, and a Postdoctoral Associate Researcher, Luke K. Davis, with whom I am really excited to start working in the next few months.”