YSS26YSS26Collective Intelligence in Social Animals
Guy Theraulaz is a senior research fellow at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and a leading expert in the study of collective animal behavior and collective intelligence. His work lies at the interface of biology, physics, and computer science, with a particular focus on swarm intelligence. While his primary empirical models are social insects, his research also extends to distributed algorithms and bio-inspired approaches to collective robotics. His research aims to understand a wide range of collective phenomena in animal societies by quantitatively characterizing individual behaviors and interactions and integrating them into mechanistic models. This approach has helped elucidate how simple local interactions give rise to complex, emergent properties at the group level. He has published extensively on nest construction in ant and wasp colonies, collective decision-making in ants and cockroaches, collective motion in fish schools and human crowds, and collective estimation and stigmergic cooperation in human groups. He has co-authored five books, including Swarm Intelligence: From Natural to Artificial Systems (Oxford University Press, 1999) and Self-Organization in Biological Systems (Princeton University Press, 2001), both of which are widely regarded as reference textbooks in the field. In 2019, he was appointed Visiting Chair Professor in Collective Behavior at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore by the Infosys Foundation.
Maynooth University – Hamilton Institute
Damien Woods’ team at the Maynooth University’s Hamilton Institute mixes theory and experiment. Experimentally, the focus is on building nanoscale computers, robots and structures out of DNA. That work is driven by solid theory: algorithms for better prediction of thermodynamics and kinetics of DNA interactions, defining new models of computation, and proving mathematical results about the capabilities of molecular computers.
The work draws on ideas from computer science, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology and engineering, and is funded by the European Research Council (ERC), Science foundation Ireland (SFI) and the European Innovation Council (EIC).
Adolphe Merkle Institute – University of Fribourg
Viola Vogler-Neuling is a group leader and SNSF Ambizione fellow in Prof. Steiner’s Soft Matter Physics Group at the University of Fribourg. She is leading the bioinspired photonics subgroup and received her Ph.D. in Physics from ETH Zurich in 2022.
Dr. Vogler-Neuling is a world-leading expert in the bottom-up nanofabrication of second-harmonic photonic crystals and metasurfaces. Driven by how nature can self-assemble highly complex three-dimensional photonic crystals, Dr. Vogler-Neuling’s subgroup is developing biomimetic structural color from natural building blocks.
Dr. Vogler-Neuling has recently received an SNSF Spark grant, an NCCR Bioinspired Materials Independence Grant, and an SNSF Ambizione grant to create photonic crystals from lipidic lyotropic liquid crystals and to analyze the molecular building blocks that give rise to structural color formation.
University of Fribourg
Hugo Parlier is a mathematician from the University of Fribourg in Switzerland interested in the study of shapes and their deformations. Many of his results are related to the study of curves on surfaces and often have a combinatorial and visual flavor.
In addition, he is passionate about sharing the ever evolving nature of mathematical research with as wide an audience possible. Recently, his efforts and fruitful collaborations led to activities involving puzzles and collaborative art activities being showcased in science museums, at the EPFL Pavilions, and at the World Expos in 2022 and 2025.
Institute of Science and Technology Austria
Fabrizio Olmeda was born in Rome, Italy and he lived there until the end of his Bachelor degree at University La Sapienza with a thesis on the applications of Hidden Markov Chains to Music.
He then did a double degree between Politecnico of Turin and Ecole Normale Superiure in Paris, with a master on clonal dynamics in cancer stem cells. He then did his PhD in the Max Planck Instiute for the Physics of Complex Systems in Dresden working on the physics of single-cell genomics and he is at ISTA since 2023 with Edouard Hannezo working on limb regeneration.
Conservatorio di Musica “E. R. Duni” – Matera
Fabrizio Festa holds a degree in Philosophy, with a thesis in the History of Physics focused on quantum mechanics. As a composer and conductor, his work spans multiple domains — from classical music (opera, ballet, symphonic and chamber music) to jazz, as well as soundtracks for theatre, film, television, and radio productions.
He currently devotes a significant part of his activity to research in computational sonology, sound topology, and music and sound design, exploring design and programming within the DAW environment, with particular attention to the applications of artificial intelligence and brain–computer interfaces (BCI) in the musical field.
He teaches at the “Egidio Romualdo Duni” Conservatory of Matera, where he serves as Scientific Director of the PNRR programs and Coordinator of the PhD program.
