Dr Adrian Baule

Profile

Adrian Baule's research is concerned with the statistical mechanics of non-equilibrium systems, with particular focus on active, granular, and living matter. The field of statistical mechanics aims to understand how the macroscopic properties of multi-particle systems emerge from individual particle-level interactions. While such systems are well understood when they are in equilibrium, i.e., macroscopically static, a plethora of real-world systems are intrinsically out of equilibrium due to energy-dissipating processes underlying their mechanical and dynamical features. Examples are microorganisms such as bacteria or algae, cell aggregates, or artificial self-propelled particles, which exhibit complex interactions with other matter, collective behaviours, and self-organization. The challenges in their theoretical description are addressed with a variety of mathematical tools from stochastic processes and field theory, as well as computational techniques based on machine learning.

Brief biography: After completing his PhD in theoretical physics at the University of Leeds in 2008, he held postdoctoral positions at the Rockefeller University, New York, and the City College of New York before joining QMUL as a Lecturer in 2011.

Research

Publications

Selected publications:

• A. Baule, Universal Poisson statistics of a passive tracer diffusing in dilute active suspensions. PNAS 120, e2308226120 (2023)
• A. Baule, E. Kurban, K. Liu, H. A. Makse, Machine learning approaches for the optimization of packing densities in granular matter. Soft Matter 19, 6875 (2023). Journal cover. 
• K. Kanazawa, T. Sano, A. Cairoli, A. Baule, Loopy Lévy flights enhance tracer diffusion in active suspensions. Nature 579, 364 (2020)
• A. Baule, F. Morone, H. J. Herrmann, H. A. Makse, Edwards statistical mechanics for jammed granular matter. Rev. Mod. Phys. 90, 015006 (2018).

For a full list of publications, please see my Google Scholar page.