
Marija Vucelja
Ph.D., 2010, Weizmann Institute of Science
Assistant Professor
Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics,Theoretical Biological and Medical Physics
Research Interests
Marija Vucelja is a statistical physicist interested in biophysics, soft condensed matter and computational physics. She studied mixing and clustering of particles in flows; problems that are relevant for understanding the formation of rain droplets and planetesimals, clumping of pollutants on water surfaces and have many 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 rate of coalescence (the probability of two individuals belonging to the same clone). Lately, Marija’s focuses on anomalous thermal relaxations in various physical systems, non-reversible Markov Chains and biophysics (here especially population dynamics and evolution).
Graduate Students
Selected Publications
- I. Klich, O. Raz, O. Hirschberg, and M. Vucelja, The Mpemba index and anomalous relaxation, Phys. Rev. X., 9, 2, 021060 (2019)
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S. Bradde*, M. Vucelja*, T. Tesileanu, and V. Balasubramanian, Dynamics of adaptive immunity against phage in bacterial populations, PLoS Comp. Bio., 13, 4, 1-16 (2017) (*equal contribution)
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E. Kussell and M. Vucelja, Non-equilibrium physics and evolution - adaptation, extinction, and ecology: a Key Issues review, Rep. Prog. Phys. 77, 192602 (2014)
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R. Neher, M. Vucelja, M. Mezard, and B. I. Shraiman, Emergence of clones in sexual populations, J. Stat. Mech. 01., P01008 (2013)
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K. S. Turitsyn, M. Chertkov, and M. Vucelja, Irreversible Monte Carlo Algorithms for Efficient Sampling, Physica D 240, 410 - 414 (2011)
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M. Vucelja, G. Falkovich, and I. Fouxon, Clustering of matter in waves and currents, Phys. Rev. E, 75, 065301(R) (2007)
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A. Peer, B. Dayan, M. Vucelja, Y. Silberberg, and A. A. Friesem, Quantum lithography by coherent control of classical light pulses, Opt. Express, 12 (26), 6600 - 6605 (2004)