Professor David Lubensky

Professor David Lubensky received a 2022 Simons Fellowship in theoretical physics. The Simons Fellows programs in both Mathematics and Theoretical Physics provide funds to faculty for up to a semester-long research leave from classroom teaching and administrative obligations, enabling recipients to focus solely on research for the long periods often necessary for significant advances. 

Professor Lubensky plans to pursue his research in theoretical biological physics during his sabbatical. His project, Physical Limits on Size Specification in Living Systems, aims to study why the sizes of some parts of living organisms are very variable while the sizes of other parts are not. For example, your two arms (or those of any person) are very close to the same size--their length rarely differs by more than 1-2%. Similar figures hold for many types of organs throughout the animal kingdom; for example, a fruit fly's two wings have areas that are almost always within about 1% of each other. On a smaller scale, the variability in size of individual bacterial cells is typically around 10%. Professor Lubensky’s goal is to understand where these numbers come from. Are they the best that can be done, given fundamental physical constraints like the presence of thermal fluctuations that impose that there must always be some error? Or is some other consideration causing size precision to be much less than the ultimate physical bound?

The foundation is proud to support the work of distinguished scientists such as Professor Lubensky. You may find the Simons Foundation announcement here.

More Information:
Professor David Lubensky