Luca Giomi

Biography:
After founding my group at Leiden University in 2014, I devoted myself to exploring the blurred boundary between soft matter and biology, using the universal language of geometry and mechanics and guided by the North Star of experimental evidence. This endeavor has led to a number of exciting discoveries, particularly related to the dynamics of defects in active matter, the geometry of bacterial monolayers and the origin of their transition to multilayer structures, the dynamics of cooperative sperm aggregates in competitive environments, the geometry and thermodynamics of lipid mixtures on curved topographies, etc. Starting in 2018, I embarked on a comprehensive research program aimed at unraveling the seemingly infinite complexity of biological tissues by observing them through the lens of condensed matter physics.

Title of the communication:
Mechanics of axis formation in Hydra