Massimo Vergassola is an Italian physicist, who worked at the University of California, San Diego from 2013-2019. He is now a Professor at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris and Directeur de Recherche at CNRS. He is Director of the ENS-PSL QBio initiative on Quantitative Biology, an initiative at the PariSanté Val-de-Grâce Campus.[1]
Massimo Vergassola | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | Italian |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics |
| Institutions | University of California, San Diego |
Vergassola uses physics to study the sense of smell and olfactory navigation in turbulent environments.[2] For example, he has shown the importance of a zig-zag search pattern to deal with odor plumes that have been broken into fragments due to turbulence.[3] In 2007, Vergassola proposed a strategy called infotaxis for use by odor-sensing robots. Infotaxis involves the creation of a mental model of where an odor source is likely to be, based on previously collected information. The robot moves in a direction that will maximize information to find the smell. Early versions of the model involved a mathematical quantity called Shannon entropy, which calculates unpredictability (high in unexplored directions and low in explored directions).[4] Another area of interest in the physics of living systems, is the physics of embryonic development.[1]
Vergassola is an Elected Fellow of the American Physical Society.[5][6][7]
References edit
- ^ a b "Massimo Vergassola". QBio. Retrieved 13 March 2023.
- ^ Reddy, Gautam; Murthy, Venkatesh N.; Vergassola, Massimo (10 March 2022). "Olfactory Sensing and Navigation in Turbulent Environments". Annual Review of Condensed Matter Physics. 13 (1): 191–213. doi:10.1146/annurev-conmatphys-031720-032754. ISSN 1947-5454. S2CID 243966350. Retrieved 13 March 2023.
- ^ Barwich, A. S. (14 July 2020). Smellosophy: What the Nose Tells the Mind. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-24540-2.
- ^ Mackenzie, Dana (6 March 2023). "How animals follow their nose". Knowable Magazine. Annual Reviews. doi:10.1146/knowable-030623-4. Retrieved 13 March 2023.
- ^ "Fellows". aps.org. Retrieved April 22, 2017.
- ^ "Massimo Vergassola". ucsd.edu. Retrieved April 22, 2017.
- ^ Di Talia, Stefano; Vergassola, Massimo (9 May 2022). "Waves in Embryonic Development". Annual Review of Biophysics. 51 (1): 327–353. doi:10.1146/annurev-biophys-111521-102500. ISSN 1936-122X. PMC 10122827. PMID 35119944. S2CID 246556845.
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