filipe.thewes@ds.mpg.de

Before joining the Zwicker group as a postdoc in October 2024, I obtained my Ph.D. from the University of Göttingen, where I worked on the interplay between kinetic timescales and thermodynamic driving forces in multi-component mixtures. Currently, I am interested in the theoretical description of multi-component systems in biological contexts, where phase separation is combined with other biochemical/physical processes to achieve functionality. My aim is to learn how to control structure formation in biological condensates. Outside of work, you'll find me either playing chess or playing jazz.

guido.kusters@ds.mpg.de

Guido obtained his PhD degree from Eindhoven University of Technology, where he worked on modeling the (non-)equilibrium behavior of various soft and responsive materials. During this time he was also a visiting scholar at the University of Oxford and Harvard University, where he explored excursions to active matter and nanocomposite self-assembly, respectively. Having recently become increasingly interested in biological systems, he joined the Zwicker group in the autumn of 2024 to study the spatiotemporal organization of biomolecular condensates.

I obtained my Ph.D. degree at Ecole Normal Superieure (ENS) Paris where I worked on disordered systems and avalanche dynamics with Prof. Kay Wiese. I then moved to the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP) at Cambridge University for a 1 year postdoc in the group of Prof. Mike Cates. At DAMPT I worked with dr. Ronojoy Adhikari on stochastic dynamics, in particular the tubular ensemble to quantify path probabilities and studying this in the context of underdamped dynamics. I joined the group of David Zwicker as a postdoc in November 2023.

Oliver previously studied for his Masters and D.Phil (PhD) degrees at the University of Oxford, before joining the Zwicker Group as a postdoc in 2023. Broadly, he is interested in fluid dynamics and soft matter physics, and their application to both biological and geophysical systems. During his D.Phil, he studied multiphase fluid flow through soft porous media, with a specific focus on the formation and collapse of ‘non-wetting cavities’ in poroelastic materials. His current research concerns phase separation in soft systems, with application to the behaviour of biomolecular condensates in cells. In his free time, Oliver can be found running around the hills and forests surrounding Göttingen.

yicheng.qiang@ds.mpg.de

Yicheng received his Ph.D. degree from Fudan University. There, he worked on the self-assembly behavior of block copolymers and high-performance algorithms for the self-consistent field theory. He joined the Zwicker Group as a postdoc in 2022. Now he focuses on the phase separation of multicomponent mixtures, hoping to learn how to achieve robust control over the properties of biological condensates.

chengjie.luo@ds.mpg.de
Personal webpage

Chengjie focuses on systems that are out of thermodynamic equilibrium, including supercooled liquids, glasses, and living cells. He develops theories and simulations to better understand the underlying principles of these systems comprising soft and active matter. Recently, he became interested in theories describing biomolecular condensates and phase separation.

nziethe@ds.mpg.de

Noah studied Physics at the Georg-August-University Göttingen. For his Bachelor thesis, he joined the group of Biological Physics and Morphogenesis at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization. There, he worked on automated image analysis of biological networks. For his Master's thesis, he turned to a combination of theoretical and experimental methods investigating the role of shear stress on the growth in Physarum polycephalum in the same group and received his degree in 2019. Interested in more theoretical approaches in biological physics, he started his Ph.D. in the group Theory of Biological Fluids and investigates the influence of fluctuation on chemically driven droplets.