Active & Biological Matter

I am a research associate at the Jožef Stefan Institute and an assistant at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of the University of Ljubljana. My main research interest is understanding the physical underpinning of the behaviour of biological systems. To that end, I use theoretical and computational models of soft and active matter, focusing especially on cell-resolution models of tissue mechanics and the role of activity in cell dynamics and morphogenesis. My work is inherently interdisciplinary and often involves close collaboration with developmental biology labs.

Open positions

PhD student

I have an opening for a fully funded, four-year PhD position in my group at the Jožef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia. 

The central goal of the candidate’s research will be to gain a deeper understanding of the role of activity in the dynamics of 2D and 3D tissues. Tissues are a fascinating example of active matter, inherently out-of-equilibrium systems that use stored or ambient energy to produce systemic motion. Therefore, we can often explain the behaviour of tissues as a consequence of activity through the lens of theoretical physics. For example, much attentions had recently been drawn by the similarity between certain tissues and active nematics. The latter are a type of active liquid crystal in which activity induces spontaneous chaotic flows and motile topological defects – similar to flows and defects we can find in tissues.

Despite the key role of activity in tissue mechanics, a clear unified picture of how different active processes affect tissues is still lacking. The central aim of the PhD project will be to develop a more systematic understanding of the role of activity in tissue mechanics. This work will rely in part on recent advances in modelling 3D tissues, in which the role of activity is just as important, but much less explored than in 2D.

If you would like to apply, or are interested in further details about the position, please email me at jan.rozman (at) ijs.si.

News

2026: RSF grant: Nematic Or Polar Epithelia: what drives cell turbulence? (NOPE)

2025: ARIS (Program AD) grant: Nematic activity at cell resolution in three-dimensional tissues: morphogenesis, collective motion, and active mixtures

2025: Received Jožef Stefan Golden Emblem Prize for Ph.D. thesis

2025: Nature Communications paper: Vertex Model with Internal Dissipation Enables Sustained Flows

2024: Physical Review Letters paper (Editors' Suggestion): Cell Sorting in an Active Nematic Vertex Model

2024: Physical Review Letters paper: Basolateral Mechanics Prevents Rigidity Transition in Epithelial Monolayers

Contact Information

e-mail: jan.rozman (at) ijs.si 

office: No. 429, Jadranska ulica 19, Ljubljana; No. 253, Jamova cesta 39, Ljubljana (more likely to be in the former)