Associate Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Trieste.
Visiting Professor 2025-2026: From January 5 to January 23, 2026, and from February 3 to February 13, 2026.
Host Professor: Ludovic Bellon
Biography
After obtaining his Master’s degree in Physics from the University of Naples Federico II in 1996, Alberto Imparato joined the International Max Planck Research School on Biomimetic Systems (2000-2003) and defended his PhD thesis in theoretical physics at the University of Potsdam in 2003, supervised by Prof. Reinhard Lipowsky. He began his career as a research associate at the C.N.R. (1997-1999) and the I.N.F.M. (1999-2000) in Naples, before continuing as a postdoctoral fellow at several prestigious institutions, including the University of Naples and the Technical University of Turin. In 2008, he joined the ISI Foundation in Turin, before becoming an associate professor at Aarhus University (Denmark) from 2008 to 2024. Since September 2024, he has been an associate professor at the University of Trieste (Italy).
Alberto Imparato has led or co-led several funded research projects, notably by the Danish Council for Independent Research and VILLUM FONDEN. His current work focuses on topics at the intersection of theoretical physics and biomimetic systems, a field in which he is recognized for his innovative contributions.
Collaboration with Physics Laboratory (LPENSL)
The visit of Professor Alberto Imparato, a specialist in stochastic thermodynamics, represents a major scientific opportunity for ENS de Lyon’s Physics Laboratory. His theoretical expertise will complement the experimental skills of the local team, already renowned for its work on fluctuation theorems and the links between thermodynamics and information theory. Together, they will explore an emerging field: microscopic feedback machines (or "information engines"), such as DNA polymerases, which use information to produce work.
In concrete terms, this collaboration will enable:
- Further study of mesoscopic motors: by combining Alberto Imparato’s theoretical approaches (based on stochastic trajectories and the symmetries of fluctuation theorems) with ENS de Lyon’s experimental devices, the team aims to optimize the power and efficiency of these machines. A key objective is to design more efficient engines by exploiting information on particle velocity, an innovative avenue that has yet to be fully explored.
- The finalization and publication of promising results: a first article (submitted to Physical Review Letters) has already emerged from their collaboration, and a second is in preparation. The visit will allow them to conclude this work and explore new questions, such as the description of the steady state of machines out of equilibrium or the implementation of schemes inspired by Maxwell’s demon.
- The extension of these concepts to the quantum domain: Alberto Imparato plans to discuss with Tommaso Roscilde’s team (ENS de Lyon) the first detection times in quantum systems, a quantum analogue of the processes studied in classical thermodynamics. These discussions could open up new perspectives for the laboratory.
- The strengthening of ties with the University of Trieste: this visit will also provide an opportunity to forge new collaborations between the two institutions, while allowing Alberto Imparato to present his work at a seminar as part of the School’s symposium.
Major publications
- A. Imparato, L. Peliti, G. Pesce, G. Rusciano, A. Sasso, Work and heat probability distribution of an optically driven Brownian particle: Theory and experiments, Phys. Rev. E, 76: 050101R (2007)
- H. C. Fogedby, A. Imparato, A bound particle coupled to two thermostats, J. Stat. Mech. P05015 (2011).
- N. Golubeva, A. Imparato, Efficiency at maximum power of interacting molecular machines, Phys. Rev. Lett.,109: 190602 (2012)
- S. Ciliberto, A. Imparato, A. Naert, M. Tanase, Heat flux and entropy produced by thermal fluctuations, Phys. Rev. Lett., 110: 180601 (2013).
- A. Bérut , A. Imparato, A. Petrosyan , S. Ciliberto, Stationary and transient Fluctuation Theorems for effective heat flux between hydrodynamically coupled particles in optical traps, Phys. Rev. Lett., 116: 068301 (2016)
- A. Bérut , A. Imparato, A. Petrosyan , S. Ciliberto, Theoretical description of effective heat transfer between two viscously coupled beads, Phys. Rev. E, 94 052148 (2016),
- A. Argun, A.-R. Moradi, E. Pinçe, G. Baris Bagci, A. Imparato, G. Volpe, Non-Boltzmann stationary distributions and nonequilibrium relations in active baths, Phys. Rev. E, 94 062150 (2016)
- H. C. Fogedby, A. Imparato, A minimal model of an autonomous thermal motor, EPL 119: 50007 (2017),
- M. Suñé, A. Imparato, Out-of-equilibrium clock model at the verge of criticality, Phys. Rev. Lett. 123: 070601 (2019)
- K. V. Hovhannisyan, F. Barra, A. Imparato, Charging assisted by thermalization, Phys. Rev. Research, 2: 033413 (2020)
- A. Imparato, Out-of-equilibrium Frenkel-Kontorova model, J. Stat. Mech. 013214 (2021)
- A. Hewgill, G. De Chiara, A. Imparato, Quantum thermodynamically consistent local master equations, Phys. Rev. Research, 3: 013165 (2021)
- V. S. Dotsenko, P. Viot, A. Imparato, G. Oshanin, Cooperative dynamics in two-component out-of-equilibrium systems: Molecular "spinning tops", J. Stat. Mech.: 123211 (2022)
- A. Imparato, N. Chancellor, G. De Chiara, A thermodynamic approach to optimization in complex quantum systems, Quantum Sci. Technol. 9: 025011 (2024)
- P. Viot, A. Argun, G. Volpe, A. Imparato, L. Rondoni, G. Oshanin, Destructive effect of fluctuations on the performance of a Brownian gyrator, Soft Matter, 20, 3154-3160 (2024)
- K. V. Hovhannisyan, A. Imparato, Energy conservation and fluctuation theorem are incompatible for quantum work, Quantum 8, 1336 (2024).
