Expert Profiles

Module 1 Statistical Physics and Soft Matter

Aug. 4-11, 2025

Hajime Tanaka
Prof. Hajime Tanaka is the Professor Emeritus and senior program advisor of the University of Tokyo, and the fellow of Institute of Physics. He is the leading scientist of soft matter physics, making pioneering contributions in the areas of glass transition, liquid-liquid phase transitions, water science, and phase transitions and critical phenomena. He was awarded the Japanese Society of Polymer Science Prize (1997), the Humboldt Research Award (2006).
Hajime Tanaka教授是东京大学名誉教授，东京大学先端科学研究中心高级顾问，国际软物质物理领域的顶尖科学家，在玻璃化转变、液液相变、水科学及相变与临界现象等方向做出了开创性贡献。

Walter Kob
Walter Kob is the professor of the University of Montpellier, France, and the head of the Laboratoire des Colloides, Verres, et Nanomateriaux. The topics of his research are focused on the structural and dynamical properties of disordered systems, such as glasses, polymeric systems, and granular materials. These investigations have been documented in more than 200 research papers and one textbook on disordered materials, collecting more than 13,000 citations. For this work Walter Kob has been honored by the Otto Schott Research Award, the Prix Ivan Peyches of the French Academie des Sciences, the Darshana and Arun Varshneya Frontiers of Glass Science Lecture, the George W. Morey Award of the American Ceramic Society, as well as a Senior Membership of the Institut Universitaire de France.
Walter Kob教授是法国蒙彼利埃大学教授。他的研究主要集中在无序系统、玻璃转变和复杂流体等领域，尤其在玻璃转变理论与数值计算方面有突出贡献。

Paddy Royall
Prof. Christopher Patrick (Paddy) Royall is a professor at ESPCI Paris, France, and holds British nationality. His research fields include the structure and dynamics of glass, colloidal systems, non-viscous gel, etc. He has organized 12 conferences and seminars, including Unifying Concepts in Glass Physics VII and 5 Centre Européen de Calcul Atomique et Moléculaire (CECAM) flagship meetings.He haspublished over 100 articles that have been cited over 8,000 times.
Paddy Royall教授是法国巴黎高等物理化学研究所的教授，并在ESPCI与CNRS的联合实验室担任研究室主任。他的研究领域包括硬球玻璃理论、胶体玻璃的动力学与结构关联、非粘性凝胶等。

Kunimasa Miyazaki
Professor Kunimasa Miyazaki is a professor at Nagoya University in Japan and a principal investigator at the Center for Research on Academic Systems of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). His research focuses on glass transitions, non-equilibrium statistical physics, and the non-equilibrium behavior of soft condensed matter. He has proposed universal mechanisms for the nonlinear rheology of soft matter and the non-equilibrium behavior of active matter. In 2007, he was awarded the Young Scientist Award by the Physical Society of Japan. He has also served as the chair and committee member of several important international conferences in the fields of statistical physics and soft matter.
Kunimasa Miyazaki教授是日本名古屋大学教授，日本学术振兴会学术系统研究中心主任研究员。Miyazaki教授的研究集中于玻璃化转变、非平衡统计物理及软凝聚态物质的非平衡行为，在提出了软物质非线性流变学、活性物质的非平衡行为的普适机制。

John Russo
Prof. John Russo is the associate professor in Physics in Sapienza University of Rome. He focuses on the soft matter physics and statistical physics, and has achieved significant contribution in the areas of glass transition, water science, and phase transition dynamics. Professor Russo has received numerous academic honors and actively participates in international academic exchanges. He has published over a hundred high-level papers in top-tier journals with over 4,000 citations, and he has a high international academic influence.
John Russo教授是罗马大学副教授，活跃于国际软物质物理与统计物理领域，尤其在玻璃化转变、水科学及相变动力学等方向取得了重要成果。

Yilong Han
Prof. Yilong Han is a faculty member in the Department of Physics at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). His research primarily focuses on complex systems, experimental soft condensed matter physics, and statistical physics. Professor Han has published over 100 high-quality papers, with more than 4,000 citations.
韩一龙教授是香港科技大学物理学系的教授，他的研究主要集中在复杂系统、实验软凝聚态物理、统计物理等。

Ran Ni
Prof. Ni Ran is a Tenured Associate Professor in the School of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology in Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. His primary research interests focus on active matter, non-equilibrium fluids, and AI for Science (AI4S). Professor Ni has received multiple grants from Singapore's Ministry of Education Academic Research Fund. In 2024, he was honored with the Tan Chin Tuan Exchange Fellow in Engineering award by NTU's College of Engineering. He has published dozens of high-quality papers, with a total citation count exceeding 3,000.
倪冉教授是南洋理工大学化学、化学工程与生物技术学院终身副教授，他的主要研究方向集中在活性物质、非平衡流体、AI4S等领域。

Ning Xu
Prof. Ning Xu is the professor of the Department of Physics at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). He has also held appointments at the CAS Key Laboratory of Soft Matter Chemistry, the Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, and the CAS Key Laboratory of Microscale Magnetic Resonance. His current research interests include the dynamics of amorphous systems in soft matter physics, phase transitions and properties of amorphous solids, quasicrystals, mechanical metamaterials, rheology, and non-equilibrium statistical physics. He has published dozens of high-quality papers, with a total citation count exceeding 3,000
徐宁教授是中国科学技术大学物理系教授，主要研究领域是软物质物理中非晶体系的动力学、相变及非晶固体的特性、准晶、力学超材料、流变、非平衡态统计物理等。

Limei Xu
Limei Xu is a Boya Distinguished Professor and Deputy Dean of the School of Physics at Peking University. Her research focuses on equilibrium and non-equilibrium statistical physics and soft condensed matter physics, particularly in the areas of phase transitions and critical phenomena in complex systems, and the properties of water.
徐莉梅教授是北京大学博雅特聘教授，物理学院副院长。她长期从事平衡与非平衡统计物理及软凝聚态物理方面研究，特别是复杂体系的相变与临界现象、水的特性等方面研究，在相关领域发表多篇论文。

Yujie Wang
Prof. Yujie Wang is a distinguished faculty member of Chengdu University of Technology. Professor Wang's research focuses on synchrotron radiation imaging technology and soft matter physics. His work explores non-equilibrium statistical physics, the microscopic structure and dynamics of granular materials and colloids, and the application of X-ray imaging in fluids, materials, and biomedical imaging. he has made significant breakthroughs in understanding the critical solid nature of granular materials, with findings published in top-tier journals.
王宇杰教授是成都理工大学教授。主要从事同步辐射影像技术和软物质物理研究，研究领域包括非平衡态统计物理、颗粒物质和胶体的微观结构与动力学过程，以及X射线成像技术在流体、材料及生物医学影像中的应用。

Pan Zhang
Prof. Pan Zhang is a researcher and doctoral supervisor at the Institute of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and a recipient of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars. His research focuses on the intersection of statistical physics, quantum physics, and machine learning.
张潘教授是中国科学院理论物理研究所研究员。他的研究领域是统计物理学、量子物理学和计算机科学之间的跨学科领域，涉及自旋玻璃理论和消息传递算法、组合优化问题、随机矩阵论、统计推断、网络、张量网络和机器学习等方面。

Module 2 Statistical Physics and Thermal Metamaterials

Aug. 11-17, 2025

Itamar Procaccia
Prof. Itamar Procaccia is a professor in the Department of Chemical Physics at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel. He is an internationally renowned expert in nonequilibrium thermodynamics and statistical physics, with pioneering contributions in chaos dynamics, nonlinear systems, and turbulence. Professor Procaccia is a Fellow of the Academia Europaea, the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, and the Israel Physical Society, and currently serves as the Chair of the Physics and Engineering Sciences Section of the Academia Europaea. He has published around 400 research papers, which have been cited over 45,000 times.
Itamar Procaccia教授是以色列魏兹曼科学研究所化学物理系的教授，欧洲科学院、德国自然科学科学院和以色列物理学会的院士，现任欧洲科学院物理与工程科学部主席。他是国际著名的非平衡热力学与统计物理学专家，做出了混沌动力学、非线性系统和湍流等领域的开创性贡献。

Muamer Kadic
Professor Muamer Kadic obtains a faculty position at the University of Franche-Comté. His research focuses on mechanical metamaterials, electromagnetic metamaterials, acoustic metamaterials, and finite element multi-physics coupling simulations. He also addresses material yield, viscoelasticity, and mechanical instabilities, particularly in polymer materials. Using finite element methods, he explores multi-physics coupling simulations to investigate the interactions between thermal, electrical, and mechanical fields. He has published approximately 210 academic papers, with more than 11,719 citations.
Muamer Kadic教授任教于弗朗什-孔泰大学。他的研究重点是力学超构材料、电磁超构材料、声学超材料以及有限元多物理场耦合仿真等，聚焦于机械超材料领域，涵盖了负泊松比材料、五模态材料以及用于隐身和力学响应调控的超构结构、他的研究内容还涉及材料的屈服、粘弹性与力学不稳定性，特别是在聚合物材料中的表现。

Garuda Fujii
Professor Garuda Fujii serves as a Professor at Faculty of Engineering, Shinshu University, leading research on structural engineering, numerical analysis, and optimum design. His research focuses on topology optimization, aiming to develop structural modeling, constraints and optimizers for designing innovative functional structures. His work applies these methods to wave systems (e.g., electromagnetic, optical, and acoustic cloaking) and diffusion systems (e.g., thermal and electrical illusion technologies).
Garuda Fujii教授是信州大学工学部副教授。他的研究以拓扑优化为核心，致力于开发结构优化方法，并研究通过此类方法设计具有创新功能的结构，并将其应用于波动系统和扩散系统的隐身技术、幻象技术等领域。

Yi-cheng Zhang
Professor Yi-Cheng Zhang is a full professor in the Department of Theoretical Physics at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. His research spans interdisciplinary fields including statistical physics, complex systems, econophysics, and recommender systems. He was selected for China’s “Thousand Talents Plan,” served as the Honorary Director of Alibaba's Research Center for Complex Systems, and was elected a member of Academia Europaea in 2022. He also founded the Econophysics Forum and serves on the editorial boards of several international journals, actively promoting the development of econophysics.
张翼成教授是瑞士弗里堡大学理论物理系教授，长期从事统计物理、复杂系统、经济物理与推荐系统等交叉学科的研究工作.其研究涵盖了个性化推荐算法、社会网络分析、金融系统风险建模、非平衡统计物理等领域。他曾入选中国“千人计划”、担任阿里巴巴研究中心名誉主任，并于2022年当选欧洲科学院院士。