Download Curriculum Vitae in pdf format
Present position
Assistant professor,
Molecular, Macromolecular Chemistry, and Materials (UMR 7167)
Ecole Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles (ESPCI), Paris
10 rue Vauquelin, 7505 Paris, France
Office phone number: +33 1 40 79 51 21
Email: stefano.aime at espci.fr
Education
2018 - 2020 Postdoctoral Fellow, Weitzlab, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
2014 - 2017 PhD in Soft Matter Physics, Laboratoire Charles Coulomb, Montpellier, France.
Topic: Failure precursors in soft matter. Advisors: L. Cipelletti, L. Ramos. [link]
2012 - 2014 Master degree in Condensed Matter Physics, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy.
Master thesis: DLS study of stress-induced plasticity in colloidal solids. Advisors: A. Vailati, L. Cipelletti [link]
2008 - 2012 Bachelor degree in General Physics, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy.
Bachelor’s thesis: Optical microscopy study of the dynamics of thermosensitive colloids. Advisors: A. Vailati, R. Cerbino [link]
Awards and grants
2026 Paper “A two-axes shear cell for rheo-optics” awarded Rheologica Acta Publication Award 2026
2026 Project “Multiscale analysis of fatigue and memory effects in model disordered materials: from colloids to textile to polymers” funded by CNRS Mission pour les Initiatives Transverses et Interdisciplinaires (MITI)
2026 Project “Upgrading polymers using reversible compartmentalization to achieve modular mechanical properties” (POLYMOD) funded by Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR)
2026 Project “Mechanical Memory of Disordered Materials in Fluctuating Environment” (MECAMEM) funded by Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR)
2024 Project “Transforming Gels Through Training” (TRAINGEL) funded by Agence Nationale de la Recherche (FWF/ANR)
2024 Project “History dependence of the rheology of yield-stress fluids” (HISTORYS) funded by Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR)
2022 Project “Microscopic energy dissipation mechanisms in composite materials” (MEDICO) funded by Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR JCJC)
2021 Project “Rheo-optical platform for the characterization of structural rearrangements in porous materials” funded by Respore excellence network
2019 Postdoctoral fellowship funded by Harvard MRSEC (1 year)
2018 Postdoctoral fellowship funded by Harvard SEAS - CUPB Joint Laboratory on Petroleum Science (1 year)
2018 Award assigned for best student oral contribution at AERC 2018 conference.
2017 Prix de thèse 2017 assigned by GFR (Groupe Français de Rhéologie) for best PhD thesis in rheology.
2016 Award assigned by Montpellier University for best presentation at DOCTISS 2016 conference.
Short Bio
I am an assistant professor at ESPCI Paris (PSL University), in the Molecular, Macromolecular Chemistry, and Materials laboratory (UMR 7167). I studied physics at the Università degli Studi di Milano, where my bachelor's and master's theses, supervised by Alberto Vailati, Roberto Cerbino, and Luca Cipelletti, used optical microscopy and dynamic light scattering to study thermosensitive colloids and stress-induced plasticity in colloidal solids. I earned my PhD in soft matter physics at the Laboratoire Charles Coulomb in Montpellier (2014–2017) with Luca Cipelletti and Laurence Ramos, on failure precursors in soft matter. I then spent two years as a postdoctoral fellow in David Weitz's group at Harvard (2018–2020), before joining ESPCI.
My research aims to understand how the microscopic structure and dynamics of soft materials give rise to their complex rheological response, by coupling mechanical and microscopic measurements. I develop rheo-optical instruments and advanced data analysis methods to extract complex dynamics induced by deformation. I use them to study network-forming materials such as colloidal gels and polymer networks, where hierarchical structure and network topology make stress distribution heterogeneous and nonlocal, with current work on double networks and composites and on fatigue and failure. I also study the yielding of soft glasses and dense suspensions, in particular the correlation length that emerges at yielding and its role in memory effects, residual stresses, and brittleness. A third line deals with droplets, beads, vesicles, and interfaces, where mesoscopic scales matter when the system is microscopic or two-dimensional, notably through the microfluidic technique Rheofluidics.
My work has been funded by several Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) projects: MEDICO (JCJC, 2022), HISTORYS and TRAINGEL (2024), and MECAMEM and POLYMOD (2026), as well as the Respore excellence network (2021), Metasoft excellence network (2026), and CNRS Mission pour les Initiatives Transverses et Interdisciplinaires (2026), and resulted in about 30 peer-reviewed publications. These contributions have been recognized on several occasions, including being awarded the 2017 GFR Prix de thèse for the best French PhD thesis in rheology, and the Rheologica Acta Publication Award 2026 for "A two-axes shear cell for rheo-optics".