Inaugural speech at the Collège de France by Jean-François Joanny

Jean-François Joanny, a researcher at the Institut Curie and former director of the ESPCI (Ecole supérieure de physique et de chimie industrielle de la ville de Paris), has devoted most of his career to the study of soft matter.

Playing with scales, the physics of soft matter largely rests on statistical physics, the laws of hydrodynamics and thermodynamics. It is fully applicable to biological systems. How does it improve our understanding of intracellular transport, cell division, cell motility, cell adhesion, several developmental biology or cancer issues, or the mechanical sensitivity of inner ear hair cells? Here are some of the questions that Jean-François Joanny will try to answer in the lecture he will give at the Collège de France as part of this new chair.