Invited Speakers

Hermes Bloomfield-Gadêlha
University of Bristol, UK

Hermes’s passion for patterns began in Brazil, watching mesmerising dendritic flows and wondering how nature organises its motion. That curiosity grew into a career at the crossroads of mathematics, physics, biology, medicine, and soft-robotics. In 2019 he founded the Polymaths Lab at the University of Bristol, where he and his team use creative mathematics and experimentation to uncover how living systems move and think—from swirling microbes to muscular motion and intelligent soft-robots. Before Bristol, Hermes completed his DPhil at Oxford, followed by fellowships at Oxford and Cambridge, and a lectureship at York. His mission is to inspire others to decode the beauty of natural patterns that surround us.

Tanniemola Liverpool
University of Bristol, UK

Tanniemola is in the Applied Mathematics Institute of the School of Mathematics at Bristol where they have been for the last 16 years. Tanniemola got their undergraduate and PhD degrees from the University of Cambridge, and have since worked at several academic institutions in France, Germany and the UK.

Their research primarily involves mathematical descriptions of complex fluids (membranes, polymers, gels, ...). Tanniemola is increasingly interested in the study of "soft biological matter" (DNA, proteins, the cytoskeleton, gene regulation, ...), and the organising principles behind this highly interesting active (living) state of matter.

Tyler Shendruk
The University of Edinburgh, UK

Tyler Shendruk is a computational soft matter physicist, whose research focuses on active and living materials. At the University of Edinburgh, he leads interdisciplinary work at the intersection of physics, biology, and materials science, focusing on the dynamics of active fluids, liquid crystals, and biopolymers.

Rastko Sknepnek
University of Dundee, UK

Rastko Sknepnek is a Professor of Biological Physics, holding a joint appointment in the School of Science and Engineering and the School of Life Sciences at the University of Dundee, United Kingdom. His primary research focuses on theoretical and computational modelling of soft condensed matter and biological systems. In close collaboration with experimental biology labs, his group works on building subcellular and cell-level models for describing active mechanical properties of cells and tissues. Rastko is also interested in understanding the role of curvature in active matter, especially in the context of shape and function of biological systems.

Tanniemola Liverpool, University of Bristol, UK