A Syracuse University professor recently received a grant to study how the laws of physics can be applied to nature and the movement of living organisms.

Cristina Marchetti, William R. Kenan distinguished professor of physics, was awarded a $420,000 grant for this research. She is leading a team of colleagues and graduate students in characterizing the physics of organization in nature.

“In our field you have to have extensive funding to do the research,” Marchetti said.

Marchetti and several graduate students apply mathematical and physical concepts to a variety of situations. Their applications of study include the properties of tissue cells, the bacterium Myxococcus xanthus and flocking patterns of birds. They seek to understand the patterns of movement within those living organisms, Marchetti said.

“This is about using quantitative tools to understand how many things get together in an organized way,” Marchetti said.

Much of the work is done on the computer, as Marchetti and her team attempt to develop formulas to predict the behavior of the organisms.

Roy Welch, an associate professor of biology, does much of the lab work that corresponds with the research. He focuses on the testing of Marchetti’s predictions.

Fifth-year graduate student Adam Patch is among the students working closely with Marchetti and her colleagues. He focuses on computer simulations and the development of mathematical models.

“We’re all interested in the collective behavior of motile units,” Patch said.

Patch and the other students analyze many systems to then look at large scale behavior in the environment.

Prashant Mishra, another fifth-year graduate student at SU, has been researching with Marchetti for about four years. He came to the university specifically to work with her.

Marchetti has been in this field of research for at least 10 years, she said.

“I started collaborating with other people who worked on these things,” Marchetti said.

Marchetti’s work with other professionals at The Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara inspired this research, she said.

But this is not Marchetti’s first research grant. She has been continuously funded by the National Science Foundation since 1988, she said. The grants are for three years each and need to be reapplied for. Marchetti applied for this most recent grant in November 2015 and heard early this summer that she had earned it.

“You’re always very happy because a lot of work goes into writing a proposal,” Marchetti said.

Her proposal included information about her prior discoveries on the topic and her plans to further research physics in nature.

Marchetti and her team will continue to study the organizations of nature and their predictability in the physics and biology departments at SU.

Published on September 12, 2016 at 12:06 am