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 Physics at Virginia

Marija Vucelja

Ph.D., 2010, Weizmann Institute of Science
Associate Professor

Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics,Theoretical Mathematical Physics

Research Interests

Marija Vucelja's research field is nonequilibrium statistical physics, with applications to soft-condensed matter and computational physics (physics of sampling). 

Lately, Marija has focused on anomalous thermal relaxations of physical systems, systems far from equilibrium, and efficient randomized algorithms (such as those utilizing non-reversible Markov Chains) designed to evaluate marginals and inference.

Over the years, Marija studied the mixing and clustering of particles in flows, problems relevant to understanding the formation of rain droplets and planetesimals, clumping of pollutants on water surfaces, and industrial applications. She derived the compressibility of surface flows and described the aggregation-disorder transition of particles in flows. Using “chaotic mixing,” she substantially accelerated specific Monte Carlo algorithms (the main numerical tools for studying complex systems). Next, Marija investigated the emergence of clones in populations. Drawing analogies between glassy systems and population dynamics, she calculated the coalescence rate (the probability of two individuals belonging to the same clone).

Selected Publications

News Items

Dear Friends, It gives me great pleasure to announce this morning’s drop of the HOOS in STEM episode “UVA’s Physicists are studying Black Holes and Unraveling ......More >
Marija Vucelja was quoted in a Quantamagazine article about the ongoing research into the Mpemba effect.  [The strong Mpemba effect was predicted by Vucelja, Klich, et al., in a More >
Marija Vucelja was quoted in a ScienceNews article about a More >
Congratulations to Marija ......More >

Departmental Committees

Grievance Committee (Chair)

Outstanding Undergraduate and Graduate Student Award Committee (Member)

Undergraduate Scholarships and Fellowships Committee (Member)