Fellows-in-Residence : Année en cours

Présentation
Igor Aronson is a Huck Chair Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry, and Mathematics at the Pennsylvania State University, USA. He is a fellow of American Physical Society since 2002. Prof. Aronson is a recipient of multiple international awards, the most recent is the Alexander-von-Humboldt Research Prize, 2019. His research focuses on collective behavior in active biological and synthetic systems, microrobotics, and non-equilibrium phenomena. 

Projet de recherche
Fundamental principles regulating collective behaviors in living systems are crucial to physicists, biologists, and engineers. The consensus is that the emergent order results from aligning interaction between the neighbors and the misaligning effect of the external noise, e.g., due to thermal fluctuations or bacterial run-and-tumble motion. However, external noise is not the only and, more importantly, the foremost source of misalignment. Self-propelled particles moving on a disordered substrate - bacteria swimming in a porous environment or cancer cells penetrating a heterogeneous extracellular matrix - are affected by the imperfections, roughness, and random obstacles of the medium.  Focusing on these two systems, we will investigate living active matter with long-range hydrodynamic interactions (bacteria) and short-range steric interactions (cancer cells, amoeba). We will use simplified discrete models of active matter and their continuum approximations subject to quench disorder. We will obtain insights into how the quenched disorder influences the onset of collective behavior and long-range coherence in bacterial and amoeboid systems. This research will stimulate new experimental techniques and predictive mathematical tools for motile microorganisms in a heterogeneous environment.  

Fellow-in-Residence 2023-2024

Presentation
Alina Asandei, a researcher at the Interdisciplinary Research Institute of Alexandru Ioan Cuza University in Iași, possesses remarkable expertise in the field of molecular biophysics and nanopore systems. Her innovative research, combining electrophysiology techniques, single-molecule analysis of molecular complexes, and stochastic detection, reflects recognized scientific excellence. Moreover, her work, published in journals like ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, Analytical Chemistry, Small Methods, Scientific Reports etc advances nanopore applications in sequencing and biosensing. Another focus of her research is studying the biophysical aspects of the interaction between antimicrobial peptides and biomimetic lipid systems, the selection of homing peptides and receptor-peptide interactions. She was formerly at the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași and is a member of the Romanian Society of Pure and Applied Biophysics and the Integrated Platform for Advanced Studies in Molecular Nanotechnologies (AMON). In 2012, she was a finalist in the L'Oréal-UNESCO national scholarship programme, 'For Women in Science'. In 2015, she was awarded the Women's Annual Science and Technology Prize, and in 2016, she received the Distinction for Young Researchers at the UAIC STAGES 2016 IUVENTAS SCIENTIAE (UAIC).

Projet de recherche
All living organisms store all of the information required to build their different cells and the entire organism in one or more DNA molecules. This high capacity for storing large amounts of information in a very small physical volumes has made this molecule very attractive for storing information in future molecular computers. Traditional DNA storage systems rely on the four natural nucleotides (A, T, C, G), but recent advancements have introduced an expanded molecular alphabet, incorporating synthetic nucleotides to increase data encoding capacity and efficiency. This expansion allows for higher information density per molecule, enabling more compact and robust data storage systems. A critical challenge in DNA storage is the accurate detection and sequencing of these synthetic nucleotides. Nanopore sequencing technology has shown great potential in this regard, offering real-time, high-throughput detection of both natural and synthetic bases. By leveraging the unique ionic current signatures of each nucleotide as it passes through a nanopore, this method can distinguish between an expanded set of molecules, facilitating the reliable retrieval of encoded data. The integration of an expanded molecular alphabet with nanopore detection represents a significant step forward in DNA storage, paving the way for scalable and efficient data storage solutions.

Présentation
Raphaël Cahen is Senior Researcher at the Justus-Liebig-Universität in Giessen (Germany) as well as a Guest Professor at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Études (Paris). His research focuses on intellectual history and the history of international law and international relations. With Elisabetta Fiocchi-Malaspina and Frederik Dhondt, he coedited three special issues on the history of international law (Clio@Themis vol. 18, JHIL vol. 22/1, FHI Debate 2022). He has also co-edited four books: Etienne-Denis Pasquier (1767-1862): un parlementaire gallican sous la Restauration et la monarchie de Juillet ( 2024); Relations internationales et droit(s): acteurs, institutions et législations comparées/Law(s) and international relations: Institutions, Actors and Comparative Legislation (1815-1914) (2024); Les Professeurs allemands en Belgique. Circulation des savoirs juridiques et enseignement du droit (1817-1914); (2022) Joseph-Marie Portalis: diplomate, magistrat et législateur (2020). He is currently editeing with Leon Castellanoz-Jankiewicz and Hendrik Simon on a collective volume upon The Monroe Doctrine: History, Interpretations, Legacy (OUP 2026). He is also finalizing his second book on “legal advisers in foreign offices in a comparative perspective (1789-1940)” and starting a new project upon Debt commissions and the making of peace around 1815.

Projet de recherche
Debt Commissions and the Making of Peace around 1815 (DCMP)
Generally considered a laboratory of political modernity, the “age of revolutions,” was also marked by an outburst of civil and interstate violence across the world. The postrevolutionary order grew out of profound conflicts over the political, societal, and material consequences of revolution and war and the return, or permanent resettlement, of hundreds of thousands of political migrants.
Despite the variety of contexts and issues, societies and states tended toward strikingly similar strategies of settling the material consequences of expropriation, exile, emancipation, and war of the revolutionary period, at the center of which stood large-scale financial reparation State-run compensation schemes gained new relevance in the postrevolutionary peace agreements, because they intersected with the settlement of material war consequences between the allied powers and France, including one of the highest war reparations ever paid, in terms of national income and repayment rate.
During the first Restoration, debt settlement commissions had been set up on the basis of the treaty of May 30, 1814. After the Hundred Days, with the Allied armies occupying part of France, and diplomats meeting regularly at the “Congress of Paris” (which does not bear this name in historiography), other debt liquidation commissions came into being. Arbitration commissions were also set up, with judicial commissioners in charge of settling disputes arising from the Napoleonic wars. It would appear that the multilingual Brussels jurist Adrien Nicolas Barbier was at the head of all these commissions.
The aim of this project is to study in detail, for the first time in historiography, all of these debt liquidation commissions. It is based on unpublished archives in Austria and France.

Présentation
Professor Demétrio da Silva Filho completed his undergraduate and master’s studies at the Federal University of Pernambuco (Brazil), specializing in Condensed Matter Physics with a focus on the nonlinear properties of organic semiconducting polymers. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Campinas (Brazil), where he investigated the optical and charge-transport properties of organic compounds. During his doctoral studies, he conducted a research internship under the supervision of Prof. Jean-Luc Brédas at the University of Arizona (USA). In this period, he co-authored a significant article on the theoretical calculation of electronic couplings between organic molecules, published in the prestigious journal PNAS. He later returned to the United States for a postdoctoral fellowship at the Georgia Institute of Technology, also under the supervision of Prof. Jean-Luc Brédas. During this appointment, he published an influential review article in Chemical Reviews, which remains a key reference in the field of charge-transport mechanisms in organic materials. He has been a faculty member at the University of Brasília since 2010. His collaboration with CYU Université began in 2016, following his first visit to Prof. Gjergji Sini, and he has visited CYU annually since then. Professor Filho is the author of more than 100 scientific publications, which collectively have received over 16,000 citations. His current research interests focus on the use of artificial-intelligence algorithms to predict novel organic compounds for applications in optoelectronics.

Projet de recherche
In this project, we aim to use artificial intelligence (AI) to accelerate the discovery and optimization of new organic materials used in flexible and sustainable electronic devices, such as organic LEDs and sensors. Organic materials are attractive because their chemical structure can be finely tuned, but this flexibility also makes the search for the “best” material slow and complex. By combining advanced computer simulations with AI methods, we will develop smarter strategies to predict how molecules and polymers behave, allowing researchers to focus on the most promising candidates while reducing time, cost, and energy consumption in the design process.
The project focuses on two complementary challenges. First, we will improve computer simulations used to predict the properties of molecules by teaching AI to identify which molecular configurations matter most, making calculations both faster and more accurate. Second, we will apply AI to help design soft polymer materials for devices that mimic human skin, capable of sensing touch and pressure. By analyzing experimental signals and learning which material properties are most important, AI will guide the development of more sensitive and efficient “electronic skin.” Overall, this research shows how AI can work hand-in-hand with physics and chemistry to speed up scientific discovery and enable new technologies that benefit society.

Présentation
Aurica Farcas received her BA and a master degree (Summa Cum Laude) from "Gh. Asachi” Technical University of Iasi, Romania, in organic chemistry. In 1998, she obtained a PhD in the field of Polymer Chemistry (with honors). Then, A. Farcas received a postdoctoral positions at Fraunhofer Institute for Angewandte Polymerforschung, Golm-Germany (2001), the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, Blacksburg-USA (2002-2003) and Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany (2004).

Présentation
Paul Hardin Kapp is Associate Professor of Architecture in the School of Architecture at the University of Notre Dame, specializing in historic  preservation and historic building conservation. Prior to his tenure at Notre Dame, he was Associate Professor of Architecture and Associate Director of the Collaborative for Cultural Heritage Management at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is the past chair of the National Council for Preservation Education. He is a 2005 Charles E. Peterson Fellow; a 2014 and a 2023 Fulbright Scholar; a 2017 James Marston Fitch Midcareer Fellow; a 2020 Franklin Fellow, U.S. Department of State; and a 2024 Guggenheim Fellow. His research focuses on how the built patrimony is conserved and restored. During his tenure at CY Advanced Studies, he will examine how Victor Hugo championed the conservation of important historic monuments in France. He has published three books; his latest book, “Heritage and Hoop Skirts: How Natchez Created the Old South,” (University Press of Mississippi) won the 2023 J.B. Jackson Book Prize; the 2023 University of Mary Washington Center for Historic Preservation Book Prize; the 2023 Fred B. Kniffen Award from the International Society for Landscape, Place, & Material Culture; and the 2023 Michael V.R. Thomason Book Award from the Gulf South Historical Association.

Projet de recherche
Victor Hugo is celebrated as one of France’s greatest literary figures and has been recognized as someone who defined French identity in the nineteenth century. Early in his career as a writer, Hugo advocated for the conservation of France’s built patrimony, publishing numerous letters and editorials expressing his disdain for many “barbaric acts” on historic sites: the widespread pilfering of iconic monuments by English antiquarians and how the members of the clergy profited from it; the short-sighted Bourgeois, who he complained placed profit over culture; and the post-revolutionary sentiment that France’s built patrimony was an expression of the Ancien Régime. I argue that Hugo was one of the earliest advocates for historic building conservation; he influenced how the French reconsidered their cultural heritage after the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars and this resulted in the creation of the Commission Nationale des Monuments in 1837, the first ever governmental-led administration of built patrimony.

Présentation
poupeh missaghi پوپه میثاقی is a writer, translator, and editor. Her debut book trans(re)lating house one was published in 2020, and her second book, Sound Museum, in 2024 (both from Coffee House Press).
An assistant professor of literary arts and studies at the University of Denver and a faculty mentor at Pacific Northwest College of Art MFA, poupeh missaghi specializes in creative writing, innovative and hybrid literature, documentary poetics and witness narratives, literature of dictatorial and police states, translation studies, écriture féminine and the intersection of writing and psychoanalysis, among other subjects.
Her most recent translations are In the Streets of Tehran, a book of witness narrative by Nila about the Woman Life Freedom uprising in Iran, published by Bonnier Books, UK, in October 2023, and Boys of Love, a novel by Ghazi Rabihavi published in September 2024 by University of Wisconsin Press. 

Projet de recherche
This project is part of the new research axis of the Héritages Laboratory (Axis 4: Exploring the epistemology of research-creation and research writing), led by Yannicke Chupin and Nicolas Vernot. Within the framework of this residency, I will carry out the research necessary to write my third novel, entitled Once Upon a Time.
Once Upon a Time is a family gathering made possible through language in the land of literature. It is a hybrid work that delves into stories from three generations of my family, on both the maternal and paternal sides, spanning across different historical eras, pre and post Islamic Revolution of 1979, and various geographical regions, including Iran, France, Switzerland, and the US among others.
In vignettes that blur the lines between personal narrative and historical academic research, the creative-critical manuscript adopts a transnational multilingual approach to investigate the complex heritages, both joyful and sorrowful, that our ancestors gift us.
France is at the center of some of the stories of my maternal lineage included in this project. As such, it is important that I travel back to Paris for an extended period of time to be able to carry multiple layers of research to help me in investigating, imagining, and writing parts of this family history.

Présentation
Pedro Ribeiro is an Associate Professor of Physics at Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), University of Lisbon, and a researcher at the Center of Physics and Engineering of Advanced Materials (CeFEMA), associated with the Laboratory of Physics for Materials and Emerging Technologies (LaPMET). He is also an associate member of the Beijing Computational Science Research Center (CSRC). His research lies at the intersection of condensed matter physics and quantum information, with a focus on many-body strong-correlation effects and non-equilibrium processes in open quantum systems.
He coordinates the q.m@t team at IST and is a founding member and one of the coordinators of the Quantum Matter in Portugal (QM@PT) research network. He serves as the Coordinator of the QuantERA project DQuant (“Driven Quantum Matter”) and as the Chair of the COST Action QOpen (“Many-Body Open Quantum Systems”).
Prior to his current appointment, he held an Investigator FCT Starting Grant (2014–2019) and was an Invited Professor at the Physics Department of IST (2014–2019). Earlier in his career, he was a research fellow at the Russian Quantum Center (RQC) in Moscow (2014–2015) and held postdoctoral positions at the Condensed Matter Theory Group of MIT, USA (2009–2010), the Centro de Física das Interacções Fundamentais (CFIF) at IST, Lisbon (2010–2011), and the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems (MPIPKS), Dresden (2011–2013).
He received his PhD in 2008 from Université Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris VI) and his Master’s degree in Physics Engineering from IST (2004). His research aims to advance the understanding of open quantum systems far from equilibrium, with potential applications in the design of novel materials and in the development of quantum and electronic technologies.

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Présentation