Lecturers

Giulio Biroli is a theoretical physicist working at the interface of statistical physics, condensed matter and interdisciplinary applications. He obtained his PhD from the École Normale Supérieure in Paris in 2000, followed by postdoctoral research at Rutgers University. He has held permanent positions at IPhT CEA-Saclay, where he was Research Director (2002–2018), and is currently Professor of Theoretical Physics at ENS Paris. His research focuses on disordered systems, glassy dynamics, jamming, and high-dimensional complex systems, with recent extensions to machine learning and theoretical ecology. He received the IUPAP Young Scientist Award in Statistical Physics (2007) and the Prix d’Aumale (2018), and is PI of the Simons Collaboration Cracking the Glass Problem and an ERC Consolidator Grant. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Statistical Physics and has long been director of the Beg Rohu Summer School.

Florent Krzakala is a theoretical physicist and applied mathematician working at the interface of statistical physics, machine learning, and information theory. He is Full Professor of Physics at EPFL, where he leads the IdePHICS laboratory (Information, Learning and Physics). He obtained his PhD in statistical physics in 2002 from Université Pierre et Marie Curie and Université Paris-Sud, working on disordered systems and spin glasses. After postdoctoral research in Rome with Giorgio Parisi, he held academic positions at ESPCI, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, and École Normale Supérieure before joining EPFL in 2020. His research addresses complex systems across physics, computer science, and data science, including random optimization, inference, compressed sensing, neural networks, and phase transitions in learning. He is a recipient of ERC funding, the Atos–Joseph Fourier Prize, a former holder of the CFM Chair in Data Science and is a member of the Simons Foundation Physics of Learning collaboration.

Valentina Ros is a CNRS Chargée de Recherche at the Laboratoire de Physique Théorique et Modèles Statistiques (LPTMS) in Orsay. Her research focuses on disordered systems and out-of-equilibrium dynamics, with contributions spanning glassy systems, high-dimensional random landscapes, quantum localization and non-reciprocal dynamics. She obtained her PhD in Statistical Physics from SISSA (Trieste) in 2016, working on localization phenomena in disordered quantum many-body systems. She has held postdoctoral and junior research positions at CEA-Saclay and École Normale Supérieure, and has received several distinctions, including the EPS Early Career Prize in Statistical and Nonlinear Physics. Her work combines advanced tools from statistical physics, random matrix theory, and dynamical mean-field theory, with applications ranging from condensed matter to ecology and machine learning.