Laboratoire de Physique de l’Ecole normale supérieure LPENS (UMR8023)

About

The LPENS brings together 95 researchers and teacher-researchers, 60 technical and administrative staff and more than 180 PhD students and post-doctoral fellows.
It relies on ENS pool of exceptional students, on a large network of international collaborations and on a first-rate technical environment (workshops, warehouses, clean room, helium liquefier) to conduct research at the highest international level.

Research topics

• Theoretical statistical physics of classical or quantum systems, in equilibrium or out of equilibrium, with many applications in mathematics, computer science, data science, cognitive science or biology.
   
• Quantum Materials and Devices: condensed matter is studied on spatial and/or temporal scales where quantum effects are predominant. These effects are used to develop new devices for quantum electronics or photonics.
   
• Fluids and Interfaces: fluid mechanics at all imaginable scales, from molecules to galaxies, solid mechanics, soft matter, granular media, instabilities and statistical physics.
   
• Biophysics: studies of biological systems, from molecular level to integrated systems, under controlled conditions in order to reduce and control the complexity of living organisms, or under natural conditions.
   
• Fundamental interactions: physics of fundamental interactions between elementary constituents of matter. The aim is to advance knowledge of the fundamental laws of nature at the shortest distances and to reconcile quantum mechanics with gravity.
   
• Astrophysics, Cosmology and Gravitation: research at the crossroads of fundamental questions in astrophysics (first stars, galaxy formation...), physics (magneto-hydrodynamic turbulence...) and cosmology (inflation, dark matter and energy).

22 research teams

• Nano-optics – Christophe Voisin

• Mesoscopics physics – Gwendal Fève

• QUAD : Quantum physics and devices – Carlo Sirtori

• Physics of fluctuations, correlations and information – Jesper Jacobsen

• Condensed matter theory – Nicolas Regnault

• Fields, strings and gravity – Giuseppe Policastro

• Disordered systems and applications – Giulio Biroli

• Nano-THz – Sukhdeep Dhillon

• Astrophysics – Antoine Gusdorf

• Theoretical neuroscience and biophysics – Vincent Hakim

• Statistical physics and inference for biology – Thierry Mora

• Microfluidics, emulsion and biology – Abdou Rachid Thiam

• Micromegas / Nano-fluidics – Lydéric Bocquet

• Mechanics, Soft matter, morphogenesis – Etienne Rolley

• Non-linear physics – Stephan Fauve

• Multiscale physics of living systems – Jean-François Allemand

• Molecular membrane mechanisms – Christine Gourier and Frédéric Pincet

• Interacting classical and quantum systems – Kris Van Houcke

• Active Cellular Matter - Julie Plastino and Cécile Sykes

• Active Cell Matter – Cécile Sykes and Julie Plastino

• Cosmology and Gravitation – Cédric Deffayet

• Hybrid Quantum Circuits – Takis Kontos

• Quantic – Zaki Leghtas