Paul’s research is primarily at the intersection of fluid mechanics, elasticity, and collective behavior. He currently works on problems related to pattern formation of swirling elastic sheets and collective behavior of social insects. He is committed to teaching, outreach, and sustainability initiatives and is also studying the collective behavior of humans in the context of quantifying the energy consumption and waste production in an undergraduate house at Harvard.

Salem’s areas of research include applied math, quantitative biology and soft matter physics. His research applies methods from differential geometry to study growth form and function of organisms. This involves developing morphometric methods to quantify shape changes over developmental and evolutionary timescales and morphogenetic models to study growing biological structures.

yeonsu-jung.github.io

Vishaal’s research interests are broadly in control theory, statistical mechanics and problems at the intersection of animal and robot navigation. His current work focuses on applications of stochastic optimal control and optimal transport to problems of biological navigation. He is also interested in the study of active matter, particularly the control of aging in many-body systems.

I am a postdoc studying collective behaviors across different length scales, specifically exploring the similarities in the decision making processes between ants and cells. My previous research journey has taken me to studying the coloration of butterfly wings, the lubrication mechanism behind blinking, and the Schistosoma eggs hatching! As an engineer by training, I love building instruments that enable new measurement possibilities. Before moving to Cambridge, I earned my doctorate with Professor Gerry Fuller in Stanford and a Bach

Emmanouela is a physicist, who is curious about (non-human) animal communication and animal cognition. She is using statistical and Machine Learning methods to understand the ‘elephant language’ and the dynamics of decision making within elephant groups.

Suraj’s research interests are broadly in statistical mechanics, condensed matter and biophysics. His current work focuses on various aspects of active matter, including phase separation, topological phenomena and tissue morphogenesis, along with questions of control and optimal transport of continuous media. He also studies the statistics and mechanics of slender elastic bodies and associated instabilities. Suraj is also interested in problems involving the thermodynamic consequences of adaptation and control in biophysical navigatio

Sumit’s research interests lie in trying to understand many-body non-equilibrium systems (typically living systems). At present, he is interested in problems related to morphogenesis, control of aging materials and cancer genetics.

Justin investigates the formation of patterns and shapes, especially those that arise soft materials. His current research focuses on the formation of branched structures such as rivers, lightning bolts, trees, lungs, vasculature, etc. He explores methods to quantify the shape of these branched structures and develops computational models that can predict branch shape from branching dynamics. To put these methods and models to the test, he builds experimental systems that can create branched structures.

Sifan’s research interests lie in biological morphogenesis. She investigates multidisciplinary problems such as growth-induced surface patterns, morphodynamics of chemomechanical active shells, and phase separation of active solids. Prior to Harvard, Sifan received her PhD in Mechanics from Tsinghua Univ and B.S. in Engineering Mechanics from Tsinghua Univ. Her current work focuses on various aspects of biophysics including neuromechanics, inverse problem of morphogenesis, and bio-chemo-mechanical patterns of active matter.