Alberto Fernandez-Nieves

I studied physics and graduated with a PhD from the University of Granada in the year 2000. My post-doctoral work was under the supervision of Prof. David A. Weitz in the Department of Physics and DEAS at Harvard University. I subsequently held a lecturer position at the University of Almeria and an INEST Visiting Professor position at Harvard University. In 2008, I became Assistant Professor of Physics at the Georgia Institute of Technology. I obtained tenure and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2014. I joined the University of Barcelona as ICREA Professor in 2019.

My research interests are in experimental soft condensed matter. We study a variety of classical many-body systems that have characteristic energy scales accessible at room temperature and that are internally characterized by mesoscopic length scales. Recent research involves partially ordered fluids, colloidal crystals and glasses, as well as active and granular matter. A recurring theme is the presence of defects in the order and how they sense and respond to the local geometry, the local environment and the activity bringing the system out-of-equilibrium. We are also interested in fluid mechanics and hydrodynamic instabilities.