PEOPLE
A Collaborative & Diverse Group
AMIN DOOSTMOHAMMADI
Principal Investigator
Amin holds an Assistant Professorship at the Niels Bohr International Academy. He also has a cross-appointment as a Specially Appointed Assistant Professor at the Department of Bioengineering in Osaka University, Japan.
Before joining NBI, Amin held a Royal 1851 Research Fellowship at Oxford University's Rudolph Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics.
KRISTIAN THIJSSEN
Assistant Professor
Kristian Thijssen is a computational soft matter physicist interested in the dynamics of emergent collective phenomena and how those systems (e.g. bacteria colonies and cellular tissues) interact with reconfigurable surroundings. He obtained his MSc at the Eindhoven University of Technology, after which he did a PhD in physics under the tutelage of Julia Yeomans in Oxford. After holding a postdoctoral position under Robert Jack in Cambridge, he joined the NBI Copenhagen with a Marie-Curie fellowship.
MARTIN PEDERSEN
Associate Professor
Martin holds a PhD from the University of Copenhagen.
He works at the interface between topological data analyses, soft matter, and biophysics. He is currently interested in applying techniques of persistent homology to active fluids, colloids, and cellular matter.
ALEKSANDRA ARDASEVA
Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow
Aleksandra Ardaseva received her Ph.D. from the Mathematical Institute at the University of Oxford. Her doctoral work focused on studying evolutionary adaptation strategies of cancer cells in dynamic environments using analytical and numerical techniques. After that, she joined the Active Intelligent Matter Group where her work is focused on modelling physico-chemical coupling in active biological matter.
SIAVASH MONFARED
Postdoctoral Research Assistant
Siavash did his PhD at MIT, followed by a postdoc at Caltech. His research is at the interface of granular physics, statistical mechanics and active matter. Particularly he is interested in understanding the link between the physics of force transmission and collective self-organization in biological systems through developing theoretical models and high performance computational tools.
NIGAR ABBASOVA
PhD Student
Nigar joined the group after earning her MSc in Physics from the University of Oslo, where she focused on experimentally investigating the dynamics of cellular monolayers. During her PhD, Nigar will build on this work by exploring dynamic heterogeneities in multicellular systems, particularly those that emerge during transitions between fluid-like and solid-like states in tissue layers. To gain deeper insights into this behaviour, she is experimentally analysing spatial and temporal variations in cell motion, mechanical forces, and YAP (Yes-Associated Protein) dynamics. By characterising these heterogeneities, her research aims to provide new insights into the biophysics of mechanotransduction in biological tissues across both space and time.
ROBIN BÖlsterli
PhD Student
Robin obtained his Masters degree from ETH Zurich. In his PhD, he is working on diverse problems including phase transitions in active fluids, active sperm unjamming, and active environmental fluid dynamics.
Tianxiang Ma
PhD Student
Tianxiang Ma is a PhD student in the Active Intelligent Matter group at NBIA, supervised by Prof. Amin Doostmohammadi. He holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from Beihang University. In his PhD, his research lies at the intersection of mechanobiology and active matter, focusing on understanding the links between mechanotransduction and emergent behaviors of biological matter. He employs bottom-up modeling, using cell-based and continuum models to explore mechanisms behind biological processes such as cell sorting. In parallel, he takes the top-down approach, leveraging experimental imaging and physical principles to infer the mechanical properties of cell collectives.
VALERIIA GRUDTSYNA
PhD Student
Valeriia did her masters at Lund University. She experimentally investigates physics of collective mechanotransdcution in epithelial cells.
VARUN VENKATESH
PhD Student
Varun has obtained his masters from NBI. In his PhD he is working on the modeling of the active matter interaction with complaint substrates.
JAYEETA CHATTOPADHYAY
Postdoctoral Research Assistant
Sameer's research work is focused on the theoretical study of the properties of an active system in the presence of extrinsic or intrinsic disorder in the system.
ELSA MESI
PhD Student
Elsa's PhD research aims to explore how mechanical forces influence cell behavior, focusing on mechanotransduction and its signaling pathways. To elucidate this, she focuses on both YAP dynamics, and GPCR activation in response to mechanical cues. By working with different cell types, she investigate how cells sense and respond to changes in their environment, such as after stretching or compression. Her approach combines live-cell imaging, quantitative analysis, and computational methods to uncover underlying physical principles of cell mechanics, adhesion, and biochemical signaling. Ultimately, her research can provide insight into physiological and pathological biological processes.
LASSE BONN
PhD Student
Lasse Bonn obtained his Masters degree at in the active intelligent matter group of Amin Doostmohammadi at NBIA. Since September 2022 he has been working as a research assistant in that group. His work is computational in nature using continuum modelling and focusses on topological defect unbinding in fluctuating nematics and the flow and stress patterns that these defects create.
VARUN VENKATESH
PhD Student
Salik is a biophysics graduate student at the Niels Bohr Institute, where he also did his bachelor’s degree. He will be working on a project on active nematics, using computational and analytical means to investigate self-pumping fluids.
SIMON GULDAGER ANDERSEN
PhD Student
Simon Guldager Andersen is a PhD student in the Active Intelligent Matter (AIM) group. He is particularly interested in the near-critical behavior of active matter and non-equilibrium many-body systems in general, which he will be studying using numerical and analytical methods. He obtained his MSc at NBI, during which he studied the spatiotemporal structure of topological defects in active nematics, in addition to developing software for analyzing cell images in collaboration with experimentalists.
NIELS DE GRAAF SOUSA
PhD Student
Niels holds a Bachelor’s in Physics from the University of Barcelona and is finishing his Master in Biophysics at the NBI. His research focuses on the collective behaviour of active particles, examining the emergence of patterns and distinctive dynamics based on theoretical models alongside computational simulations. He is committed to understanding how the nematic and polar symmetries interact and coexist in active matter and their effect on the system dynamics. Additionally, he is enthusiastic about modelling and uncovering how mechanotransduction affects the complex behaviour of cell dynamics.