Ricard Alert studied Physics at the University of Barcelona, where he also obtained his PhD in 2018. From 2018 to 2021, he was an HFSP postdoctoral fellow at the Princeton Center for Theoretical Science. In 2021, he joined the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems in Dresden, Germany, where he established his group "The Physics of Living Matter". In December 2025, he became ICREA Research Professor at the University of Barcelona. In 2023, he was awarded the Early Career Scientist Prize in Biological Physics by the International Union for Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP), and in 2025 he received the Young Investigator Prize in Theoretical Physics by the Real Sociedad Española de Física and the BBVA.
Research interests
I work in the field of biological physics. Our group seeks to uncover physical principles that govern the phenomena of life. To this end, we develop the physics of active matter — a type of matter than can move on its own and shape itself — to understand how cells organize and move in groups. In particular, we study biological processes such as collective cell migration, the self-organization of bacterial colonies, the growth of tissues, as well as physical phenomena such as flocking, phase separation, and turbulence in active fluids. This work puts concepts from statistical physics, soft matter, and fluid dynamics in contact with important questions in biology.
Selected publications
– Hillebrand M & Alert R 2025, ‘Discontinuous transition to active nematic turbulence‘, Nature communications, 16 – 1 – 11169.
Selected research activities
- Joined ICREA in December 2025
- Seminar at Turing Centre for Living Systems (CENTURI), Marseille, France
- Young Investigator in Theoretical Physics Prize 2025 by the Real Sociedad Española de Física and the BBVA Foundation.