Physics of Living Systems (PoLS)

Welcome to the Italian node of the Physics of Living Systems (PoLS) Research Network.

PoLS is a trans-institutional community-based network with the main aim of providing an international exchange environment for graduate students and graduate student educators all working on the physics of living systems, and to help define the research agenda for this field. This structure also enables the exploration of various means of educating these students in biology, while also ensuring that they develop and maintain a firm grounding in physics. The partner institutions have been among the pioneers in stressing the use of both theoretical and experimental physics to further the understanding of biology and biomedicine.

The network structure allows students at participating institutions (and a selected number of other students) to interact with their peers (both in-person and in-silico) and collectively. This program includes visiting research internships to other institutions, which serve both as a way of broadening students perspectives on possible approaches to difficult research topics and as a way of creating collaborative ties between groups at the various sites. In the US - the network is funded by the National Science Foundation award PHY-2014141, from the Division of Physics, Directorate of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, and hosted by the Center for Theoretical Biological Physics at Rice University. The other main international nodes are France (CNRS) and Germany (Max Planck Society).

Central PoLS web site at Rice University: https://pols.rice.edu/

International PoLS network: https://ipolsnetwork.web.illinois.edu/