BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:icalendar-ruby CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/Vienna BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20260329T030000 TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0200 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=-1SU;BYMONTH=3 TZNAME:CEST END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20261025T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:+0200 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=-1SU;BYMONTH=10 TZNAME:CET END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1778065200@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260506T130000 DTEND:20260506T160000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: David Vijatovic\nhosted by Amelia Douglass\nAbstract: Motor circuits must generate distinct patterns of movement while adapting to developmental changes in body form and behavioral demands. Frog metamor phosis provides a unique opportunity to study this process\, as Xenopus la evis transitions from axial\, tail-based swimming to limb-based locomotion . This work investigates how spinal circuits are molecularly organized and functionally reorganized during this transition.I examine how spinal neur on composition changes across metamorphosis\, showing that cell type diver sity increases with the emergence of limb movement. In particular\, inhibi tory V1 interneurons and motor neurons expand and diversify into transcrip tionally defined populations resembling those described in mammals. These findings support conserved organizational principles of vertebrate spinal circuits and link cell type diversification to the emergence of more compl ex motor behaviors. I further develop viral and optical approaches to prob e how these molecularly defined circuits are functionally reorganized duri ng this transition.Together\, these findings establish Xenopus laevis as a powerful model for linking molecular identity\, circuit dynamics\, and be havior across vertebrate development. LOCATION:Sunstone Bldg / Ground floor / Big Seminar Room A / 27 seats (I23. EG.102)\, ISTA ORGANIZER: SUMMARY:David Vijatovic: Thesis Defense:Dissecting molecular and functional basis of motor control in Xenopus laevis frog URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6442 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:684800150f201048290295@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260506T153000 DTEND:20260506T163000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Hong Wang\nhosted by Laszlo Erdös & Uli Wagner\nAbstr act: A Kakeya set is a compact subset of R^n that contains a unit line seg ment pointing in every direction. Kakeya set conjecture asserts that every Kakeya set has Minkowski and Hausdorff dimension n. We prove this conject ure in R^3 as a consequence of a more general statement about union of tub es.This is joint work with Josh Zahl. LOCATION:Raiffeisen Lecture Hall\, Central Building\, ISTA ORGANIZER:boosthui@ist.ac.at SUMMARY:Hong Wang: Kakeya sets in R^3 URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6400 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:68776f9104d40763009008@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260507T110000 DTEND:20260507T120000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Nachi Stern\nhosted by Carl Goodrich\nAbstract: From e lectrically responsive neuronal networks to immune repertoires\, biologica l systems can learn to perform complex tasks. In this seminar\, we explore physical learning\, a framework inspired by computational learning theory and biological systems\, where networks physically adapt to applied force s to adopt desired functions. Unlike traditional engineering approaches or artificial intelligence\, physical learning is facilitated by physically realizable learning rules\, requiring only local responses and no explicit information about the desired functionality. Our research shows that such local learning rules can be derived for broad classes of physical network s and that physical learning is indeed physically realizable\, without com puter aid\, through laboratory experiments. We take further inspiration fr om learning in the brain and demonstrate the success of physical learning beyond the quasi-equilibrium regime\, enabling physical systems to adapt c omplex dynamical functions. By leveraging the advances of statistical lear ning theory in physical machines\, we propose physical learning as a promi sing bridge between computational machine learning and biology\, with the potential to enable the development of power-efficient AI platforms\, and new classes of smart metamaterials that adapt in-situ to users needs. LOCATION:Mondi Seminar Room 2\, Central Building\, ISTA ORGANIZER:cpetz@ist.ac.at SUMMARY:Nachi Stern: Learning without neurons in physical systems URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6287 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1778148000@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260507T120000 DTEND:20260507T130000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Florian Seitner\nhosted by XISTA\nAbstract: What does it really take to turn cutting-edge research into a company that lasts? Jo in Florian Seitner\, VP & General Manager for Perception Software at emoti on3D\, for an honest look at the journey from academic research to buildin g and exiting a deep-tech startup. This talk goes beyond the technology\, exploring why team\, customers\, and go-to-market matter just as much as t he innovation itself.• 12:00 - 12:45 | Talk• 12:45 - 13:00 | Q&A• 13 :00 - 15:00 | Food & DrinksFlorian Seitner is VP & General Manager for Per ception Software at emotion3D\, where he works on AI-based perception syst ems for automotive applications\, with a focus on computer vision and in-c abin sensing. He holds a PhD in computer vision and AI and is a co-founder of emotion3D. As part of the founding team\, he helped grow the company f rom an early-stage startup into an established provider of interior percep tion software for automotive OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers. Following its acqu isition by indie Semiconductor\, his focus is on strategy\, business devel opment\, and customer engagement.In this talk\, Florian will share practic al lessons from building a deep-tech company:• From Lab to Market: Navig ating the long\, non-linear path from research to real-world impact• Bey ond Technology: Why team\, customers\, and go-to-market determine success • Honest Lessons: Pivots\, funding challenges\, and what it takes to sca le without burning out your teamIf you’re curious about deep-tech startu ps or want an honest take on the founder journey\, Florian is happy to ans wer questions and share personal experiences. Stay after the talk to mingl e over pizza\, exchange ideas\, and engage with our innovation leads. LOCATION:Sunstone Building | 1. Floor | Graduate Staircase\, ISTA ORGANIZER:diana.zubcevic@ista.ac.at SUMMARY:Florian Seitner: XISTA Talk | Florian Seitner URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6438 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:665dbdca969d6632628731@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260507T131500 DTEND:20260507T150000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Du Pei\nhosted by Tamas Hausel\nAbstract: In this talk \, I will outline an approach to studying skein modules of 3-manifolds by embedding them into the Hilbert spaces of four-dimensional supersymmetric gauge theories. When the 3-manifold has reduced holonomy\, this approach l eads to an algorithm for the dimension of the skein module for a general g auge group\, expressed as a sum over nilpotent orbits in the Lie algebra\, which we also related to and compare with the structure of C^*-fixed loci in the moduli space of Higgs bundles. Surprisingly\, the dimensions often differ between Langlands-dual pairs\, for which I will provide a physical explanation. This perspective helps to clarify the relation between the g auge-theoretic framework of Kapustin and Witten and other versions of the geometric Langlands program\, and explains why the dimensions of skein mod ules do not exhibit a TQFT-like behavior. LOCATION:Office Bldg West / Ground floor / Heinzel Seminar Room (I21.EG.101 )\, ISTA ORGANIZER:boosthui@ist.ac.at SUMMARY:Du Pei: Gauge theory and skein modules URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6431 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1778491800@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260511T113000 DTEND:20260511T123000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Veronika Sunko & Xujia Chen\nhosted by Mikhail Lemeshk o\nAbstract: Veronika Sunko | Symmetry Probes of Quantum MatterThe centra l goal of condensed matter physics is to uncover\, understand\, and ultima tely control novel phases of matter. Progress relies on continuous interac tions between theory and experiment\, yet the two often remain separated: theories predict phenomena that experiments struggle to test\, while exper iments reveal behaviors that theories can at best postdict. My research is driven by the ambition to narrow this gap\, an effort that is inherently collaborative\, bringing together theorists\, synthesis groups\, and compl ementary experimental techniques.In this talk\, I will outline how symmetr y can serve as a bridge: experimental identification of symmetry can test and constrain theories. I will describe our strategy of developing and uti lizing experimental probes of symmetry\, and the opportunity these efficie nt and sensitive experiments offer for altermagnets\, a new class of magne tic materials where theoretical predictions are outpacing data. More broad ly\, this symmetry-based toolkit is applicable to a wide range of quantum materials\, and it will shape the research of my group in the years to com e.____________Xujia Chen | Manifolds and DiffeomorphismsManifolds are one of the fundamental objects studied in geometry and topology\, and diffeom orphisms are the "self-symmetries" of a smooth manifold. I will give an introduction to these concepts\, and show you what some research question s in this area look like. This talk is mainly targeted at non-mathematic ians LOCATION:Raiffeisen Lecture Hall\, ISTA ORGANIZER:diana.zubcevic@ista.ac.at SUMMARY:Veronika Sunko & Xujia Chen: Inaugural Lecture | Symmetry Probes of Quantum Matter & Manifolds and Diffeomorphisms URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6094 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:686bce5b41e34965306073@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260512T110000 DTEND:20260512T120000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Benjamin Sacépé\nhosted by Georgios Katsaros\nAbstra ct: Topological superconductivity has attracted considerable attention due to its great promise for fault-tolerant quantum computing. Conventional a pproaches rely on intricate hybrid systems combining topological insulator s and superconductors\, requiring precise material engineering and fine-tu ned conditions\, yet a clear experimental demonstration remains absent to this day. In this colloquium\, I will introduce a novel type of topologica l insulator state emerging from the physics of the quantum Hall effect. Th is state leverages the unique properties of the zeroth Landau level in gra phenea remarkable\, strongly interacting flat band where electron-electron interactions give rise to diverse broken-symmetry phases\, characterized by distinct topological and lattice-scale orders. These phases can be iden tified through transport measurements [1] and directly visualized using sc anning tunneling spectroscopy [2]. I will also demonstrate how superconduc tivity can be induced in quantum Hall edge channels to create robust Josep hson junctions\, despite the presence of a strong perpendicular magnetic f ield [3]\, thus opening a new path toward the realization of topological s uperconductivity in quantum Hall Josephson junctions.[1] L. Veyrat et al. Science 367\, 781 (2020)[2] A. Coissard et al. Nature 605\, 51 (2022)[3] H . Vignaud et al. Nature 624\, 545 (2023) LOCATION:Office Bldg West / Ground floor / Heinzel Seminar Room (I21.EG.101 )\, ISTA ORGANIZER:sandra.widdmann@ist.ac.at SUMMARY:Benjamin Sacépé: Exploring Quantum Hall Edge Channels in Graphene as a Path to Topological Superconductivity URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6303 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:69c104cda01c7847075710@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260512T140000 DTEND:20260512T150000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Sashi Weerawarana\nhosted by Alicia Michael and Floria n Schur\nAbstract: All living beings must package and compact their DNA to protect genetic material and regulate genome access. In my thesis work\, I investigate genome organization in mitochondria\, bacteria\, and viruses . Mitochondria utilize the HMG-box protein TFAM to fulfill this vital role \, whereas bacteria and viruses employ histone proteins that adopt differe nt binding modes. The central focus of this talk is TFAM-mediated DNA comp action. Using a wide array of biochemical methods and structural biology a pproaches\, I show that TFAM compacts DNA into homogenous higher-order com plexes that exhibit continuous conformational dynamics. The talk also pres ents cryo EM data revealing distinct strategies utilized by bacterial hist ones from Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus and Leptospira interrogans to compact DNA and highlights unique structural features of the Medusavirus medusae nucleosome. Together\, this work reveals diverse mechanisms of genome comp action across organelles and domains of life. LOCATION:Mondi Seminar Room 2\, Central Building\, ISTA ORGANIZER:jgazsi@ist.ac.at SUMMARY:Sashi Weerawarana: Genome organization in mitochondria\, bacteria\, and viruses URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6371 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1779096600@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260518T113000 DTEND:20260518T123000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Alex Schier\nhosted by Edouard Hannezo\nAbstract: How does a fertilized egg develop into a complex embryo?  To address this que stion\, large-scale high-resolution atlases of development have recently  been generated. While these efforts have met with much excitement\, they have also raised the concern of "stamp collection". I will present our re cent progress in generating global views of embryogenesis and discuss how the exploration of atlases and gene regulatory networks can help provide c onceptual advances. LOCATION:Raiffeisen Lecture Hall\, ISTA ORGANIZER:diana.zubcevic@ista.ac.at SUMMARY:Alex Schier: Global Views of Development URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/5796 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:69121497774d3629907214@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260518T160000 DTEND:20260518T170000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Emmanuel Kammerer\nhosted by Laszlo Erdös & Jan Maas\ nAbstract: Consider an SIR model on the complete graph starting with one i nfected vertex and n sane vertices. We draw an edge between two vertices w hen one infects another. What does the tree look like at the end of the ep idemic? This kind of tree fits into the framework of uniform attachment tr ees with freezing\, a model of random trees which generalises uniform atta chment trees where\, besides the uniform attachment mechanism\, we introdu ce a "freezing" mechanism where new vertices cannot attach to frozen verti ces. We obtain the scaling limit of the total height of the infection tree depending on the infection rate. The asymptotic behaviour of the total he ight satisfies a phase transition of order 2. This talk is based on a join t work with Igor Kortchemski and Delphin Snizergues. LOCATION:Central Bldg / O1 / Mondi 2a (I01.O1.008)\, ISTA ORGANIZER:birgit.oosthuizen-noczil@ist.ac.at SUMMARY:Emmanuel Kammerer: The height of the infection tree URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6351 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:69b2cc97ab232533507038@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260518T170000 DTEND:20260518T180000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Matteo D’Achille\nhosted by Laszlo Erdös & Jan Maas \nAbstract: We will discuss low-intensity limits of Poisson-Voronoi tessel lations\, a.k.a. ideal Poisson-Voronoi tessellations (IPVTs). In real hype rbolic space of dimension $d\\geq 2$\, a simple Poissonian description of the cell containing the origin (the zero cell) allows one to study fine pr operties of all the tiles of the IPVT. This Poissonian description of the IPVT remains fairly simple in other settings\, such as the infinite regula r tree and the Cartesian product of hyperbolic planes. Time permitting\, I ll also discuss a surprising application to Bernoulli-Voronoi percolation. The talk is based on a paper in collaboration with Nicolas Curien\, Natha nal Enriquez\, Russell Lyons\, and Meltem nel (Ann. Probab.)\, on 2412.008 22\, on 2511.23317 in collaboration with Jan Grebk\, Ali Khezeli\, Konstan tin Recke and Amanda Wilkens\, and on work in progress with Ali Khezeli.It will also include a physical realization of the zero cell of the IPVT in three dimensional hyperbolic space in the conformal ball model (jewel). LOCATION:Central Bldg / O1 / Mondi 2a (I01.O1.008)\, ISTA ORGANIZER:boosthui@ist.ac.at SUMMARY:Matteo D’Achille: The jewel and the two dials of the ideal Poisso n–Voronoi Tessellation URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6352 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1779181200@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260519T110000 DTEND:20260519T120000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Jonathan Home\nhosted by Julian Léonard\nAbstract: A bstract: The development of useful quantum computers will rely on the abil ity to suppress errors which occur both naturally and through the erroneou s application of gate operations. Error-correction typically comes with si gnificant resource overheads\, which motivates the search for implementati ons which can naturally provide error correction in a compact manner. One approach is to use bosonic degrees of freedom to encode information redund antly\, allowing to perform feedback which suppresses errors. I will descr ibe two sets of experiments in which we perform operations and bosonic err or correction using mechanical oscillations of a single trapped ion. In th e first\, we demonstrate the entanglement and subsequent error-correction of logical qubits encoded using superposed displaced squeezed states formi ng periodic structures in phase space. This “GKP” encoding is particul arly well suited to diffusive errors in the oscillator phase space. Then\, using a novel non-linear regime of control\, I will show how we realize n on-linear reservoir engineering to perform confinement of states into fini te-dimensional subspaces which have discrete rotational symmetry\, and whi ch protect from dephasing errors. Alongside coverage of the state-of-the-a rt\, I will provide perspectives as to how these approaches could be embed ded in larger systems.” LOCATION:Office Bldg West / Ground floor / Heinzel Seminar Room (I21.EG.101 )\, ISTA ORGANIZER:Stephanie.Dolot@ist.ac.at SUMMARY:Jonathan Home: Bosonic error-correction codes with trapped ions URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6406 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1779195600@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260519T150000 DTEND:20260519T180000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Nati Linial\nhosted by Matthew Kwan and Uli Wagner\nAb stract: Abstract: Let X=[n] be a finite set of points. An (x\,y)-path is a sequence of distinct points that starts with x and ends with y. A path system Π on X is a collection of paths with exactly one (x\,y)- path for every two distinct points x\,y∈X. Think of this path Px\,y a s the chosen path between these two points. We always assume that Py\,x  coincides with Px\,y read in reverse. We say that the path system Π i s consistent if the following holds: For every point z on the path Px\, y\, this path is the concatenation of the paths Px\,z and Pz\,y. It is easy to construct metric consistent path systems: Assign a positive distan ce w(u\,v) with every pair of points u\,v∈X and let Px\,y be a w- shortest (x\,y) path Q\; Is every consistent path system necessarily me tric? The answer is negative and we give various quantitative manifestatio ns of this statement. Skipping the necessary definitions we ask if every c onsistent path system is approximately metric. A: there exist consistent p ath systems with metric distortion Ω(√n). The best result of this form is still unknown. I will briefly survey some of the many results that we already have in this general domain. Every path system gives rise to a gra ph (X\,E) where xy is an edge whenever the path Px\,y=x\,y. Indeed\, many of our results are graph-theoretic. All the papers in this domain are joint with my student Daniel Cizma\, some are also with Maria Chudnovsky\ , if time allows I will also mention a recent result with my students Itai Goldflam. LOCATION:Raiffeisen Lecture Hall\, Central Building\, ISTA ORGANIZER:Stephanie.Dolot@ist.ac.at SUMMARY:Nati Linial: Path Geometry URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6468 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1779195600@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260519T150000 DTEND:20260519T180000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Péter Pál Pach\nhosted by Matthew Kwan and Uli Wagne r\nAbstract: Abstract:The Alon-Jaeger-Tarsi conjecture states that for any finite field F of size at least 4 and any nonsingular matrix A over  F there exists a vector x such that neither x nor Ax has a 0 compon ent. In this talk we discuss the proof of this result for |F|>79 and fur ther applications of our method about coset covers and additive bases. Joi nt work with János Nagy and István Tomon. LOCATION:Raiffeisen Lecture Hall\, Central Building\, ISTA ORGANIZER:Stephanie.Dolot@ist.ac.at SUMMARY:Péter Pál Pach: The Alon-Jaeger-Tarsi conjecture via group ring i dentities URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6469 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:68761bcb8c06a951650051@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260521T103000 DTEND:20260521T120000 DESCRIPTION: LOCATION:Office Bldg West / Ground floor / Heinzel Seminar Room (I21.EG.101 )\, ISTA ORGANIZER:hcai@ist.ac.at SUMMARY:Chemistry Colloquium URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/5933 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:665dbdca98c2b709685894@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260521T131500 DTEND:20260521T151500 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Pieter Belmans\nhosted by Tamas Hausel\nAbstract: The classification of Fano 4-folds is still largely open. Whilst moduli of sta ble quiver representations are varieties with very special properties\, it turns out that subspace quivers give rise to four interesting Fano 4-fold s (2 of which appear to be new) which are rigid\, have no vector fields\, have high Picard rank\, and have an interesting structure from an MMP pers pective. The tools for studying moduli of quiver representations work part icularly well for these examples\, and I will describe their intricate geo metry. This is joint work with Markus Reineke. LOCATION:Office Bldg West / Ground floor / Heinzel Seminar Room (I21.EG.101 )\, ISTA ORGANIZER:boosthui@ist.ac.at SUMMARY:Pieter Belmans: Fano 4-folds from subspace quiver moduli URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6439 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1779364800@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260521T140000 DTEND:20260521T150000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Tarik Yefsah\nhosted by Julian Léonard\nAbstract: Abs tract: The last decades have seen the emergence of ultracold atom experime nts as powerful platforms for the exploration of complex many-body systems \, owing to their ability to probe large ensembles of particles in a well- characterized\, tunable\, and isolated environment.Among the various quant um many-body problems within reach of quantum gas experiments\, interactin g fermionic systems play a special role. While they constitute a cornersto ne of quantum matter covering a broad fundamental and technological scope\ , their understanding still represents a major challenge for existing theo retical approaches\, which are widely plagued by the infamous sign-problem .In this talk\, I will present our recent work on quantum gas microscopy o f fermionic many-body systems in continuous space\, how we characterize th em at previously inaccessible levels of resolution\, and gain new insight into their microscopic inner workings. LOCATION:Sunstone Bldg / Ground floor / Big Seminar Room A \, ISTA ORGANIZER:Stephanie.Dolot@ist.ac.at SUMMARY:Tarik Yefsah: Exploring Fermionic Quantum Matter at the Single-Atom Level URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6445 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1779458400@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260522T160000 DTEND:20260522T170000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Jeferson Zapata\nhosted by Matthew Kwan\nAbstract: Sta ndard mathematical optimization and root-finding algorithms often stall or fail when faced with degenerate or singular problems. This thesis present s novel symbolic-numeric frameworks designed to overcome these theoretical and computational bottlenecks. The first part of the presentation introdu ces a hybrid algorithm that reformulates weakly feasible\, degenerate semi definite programs (SDPs) into structured polynomial systems\, enabling the rigorous algebraic certification of numerical approximations. The second part addresses the loss of convergence in path-tracking methods near isola ted singular roots. By modeling solution paths as generalized fractional P uiseux series and utilizing an explicitly derived algebraic predictor\, th e proposed algorithms restore superlinear convergence and significantly re duce computational overhead in heavily degenerate systems. LOCATION:Office Bldg West / Ground floor / Heinzel Seminar Room (I21.EG.101 ) and Zoom\, ISTA ORGANIZER: SUMMARY:Jeferson Zapata: Thesis Defense: Overcoming Degeneracy and Singular ity: Techniques for Semidefinite Programs and Homotopy Continuation Endgam es URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6476 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1779786000@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260526T110000 DTEND:20260526T120000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Jie Ren\nhosted by Maksym Serbyn\nAbstract: Abstract: Understanding how complex systems transition between order and chaos is a central challenge of nonequilibrium physics. While weak perturbations of c lassical integrable systems give rise to a mixed phase space of coexisting regular and chaotic trajectories\, analogous behavior in interacting quan tum many-body systems has remained elusive. Here we develop and experiment ally implement a hybrid quantum–classical feedback protocol that autonom ously discovers and stabilizes long-lived regular trajectories in a superc onducting quantum processor. Each iteration combines short-time quantum ev olution with classical optimization that projects the dynamics back onto a low-entanglement variational manifold\, effectively distilling coherence from chaotic evolution. The stabilized trajectories reveal a quantum many- body mixed phase space emerging from nonlinear variational dynamics\, with out a direct analogue in classical or few-body quantum systems. Our result s establish a versatile framework for algorithmic discovery and control of coherent dynamics previously inaccessible to experiment.  LOCATION:Office Bldg West / Ground floor / Heinzel Seminar Room (I21.EG.101 )\, ISTA ORGANIZER:Stephanie.Dolot@ist.ac.at SUMMARY:Jie Ren: “Quantum many-body mixed phase space revealed by hybrid feedback control" URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6345 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1779868800@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260527T100000 DTEND:20260527T110000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Xin Wang\nhosted by Julian Leonard\nAbstract:   Abst ractAn ultralong-range Rydberg molecule (ULRM) forms optically through the interaction between a ground-state atom and the electron of a Rydberg ato m. In this talk\, I will present a first and comprehensive experimental an d theoretical investigation of ULRMs of 174Yb in 6sns 1S0 Rydberg states a cross nearly two decades in principal quantum number and three orders of m agnitude in molecular binding energy. Using the Coulomb Green’s function formalism\, we compute Born–Oppenheimer molecular potentials describing a Rydberg atom perturbed by a ground-state atom and obtain quantitative a greement with high-resolution molecular spectra. This enables the extracti on of low-energy electron-Yb scattering phase shifts\, including the zero- energy s-wave scattering length and the positions of two spin-orbit split p-wave shape resonances. The latter provides strong evidence that the Yb − anion exists only as a metastable resonance. We further demonstrate th e sensitivity of ULRM spectra to the atomic quantum defects\, enabling a p recise determination of the quantum defect of the 6s23f 1F3 state. These f indings establish Yb ULRMs as a powerful probe of low-energy electron–Yb interactions and an ideal platform for exploring Rydberg molecules and lo w-energy scattering physics. LOCATION:Office Bldg West / Ground floor / Heinzel Seminar Room (I21.EG.101 )\, ISTA ORGANIZER:Stephanie.Dolot@ist.ac.at SUMMARY:Xin Wang: Revealing Electron-Ytterbium Interactions through Rydberg Molecular Spectroscopy URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6457 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:686bf613550f4019926788@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260527T130000 DTEND:20260527T143000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Jakob Glas\nhosted by Tim Browning\nAbstract: I will a bout Manin's conjecture for quintic del Pezzo surfaces. In particular\, I will discuss the motivic setting and Peyre's all the heights version over function fields. This is joint work with C. Bernert und L. Faisant. LOCATION:Central Bldg / O1 / Mondi 2a (I01.O1.008)\, ISTA ORGANIZER:boosthui@ist.ac.at SUMMARY:Jakob Glas: Moduli spaces of curves on quintic del Pezzo surfaces URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6477 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1779951600@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260528T090000 DTEND:20260529T170000 DESCRIPTION: LOCATION:\, ISTA ORGANIZER:lilla.kukor@ista.ac.at SUMMARY:ISS Area Retreat 2026 URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/5689 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1779958800@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260528T110000 DTEND:20260528T120000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Federica Surace\nhosted by Maksym Serbyn\nAbstract: TB A LOCATION:Central Bldg / O1 / Mondi 2a\, ISTA ORGANIZER:Stephanie.Dolot@ist.ac.at SUMMARY:Federica Surace: "Slow dynamics in quantum many-body systems" URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6217 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:68776ee57aa4b682558249@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260528T110000 DTEND:20260528T120000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Mitja Drab\nhosted by Andela Saric\nAbstract: Biologic al membranes are active\, multicomponent systems whose shape emerges from a complex interplay between curvature-inducing inclusions\, in-plane order ing\, and cytoskeletal forces. In this talk\, I present a numerical framew ork for modeling closed membranes populated by curved anisotropic componen ts that interact via nematic alignment and couple to active forces. Our si mulations reveal a rich landscape of membrane morphologies arising from th e competition between intrinsic curvature\, nematic interactions\, and act ive stresses. We show how nematic alignment organizes curved inclusions in to defect structures that localize in regions of high curvature\, thereby guiding membrane remodeling and stabilizing complex shapes such as tubules \, necks\, and pearled structures . Active forces further drive the system out of equilibrium\, enabling transitions to morphologies that are inacce ssible in passive systems\, including flattened\, protrusive\, and dynamic ally fluctuating states. These results provide a unified physical picture of how curvature\, orientational order\, and active forces cooperate to co ntrol membrane shape\, with implications for processes ranging from endocy tosis and phagocytosis to cell spreading and motility. LOCATION:Office Bldg West / Ground floor / Heinzel Seminar Room (I21.EG.101 )\, ISTA ORGANIZER:cpetz@ist.ac.at SUMMARY:Mitja Drab: Numerical Modeling of Nematic Membranes with Active Cur ved Anisotropic Inclusions URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6382 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:6a0ae4f2e783c212774084@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260528T124500 DTEND:20260528T141500 DESCRIPTION: LOCATION:Central Bldg / O1 / Mondi 2a (I01.O1.008)\, ISTA ORGANIZER:bzakirov@ist.ac.at SUMMARY:Speaker: Gergo Orban URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6467 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1780038000@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260529T090000 DTEND:20260529T150000 DESCRIPTION:Abstract: Welcome to the first annual neuroscience student symp osium!We are looking forward to hearing what our fellow students have been working on! We are also excited to host two external speakers: Rosa Coss art (https://www.inmed.fr/en/developpement-des-microcircuits-gabaergiques- corticaux-en) (Institute of Mediterranean Neurobiology – INMED) and Fe lix Deku (https://knightcampus.uoregon.edu/felix-deku) (University of Ore gon).Please find the program attached and register below\, so that we can make sure to have enough food and drinks for everyone!The event is also  open to anyone outside the neuroscience community.We hope to see you all there!Your Neuroscience Student Track Reps LOCATION:Raiffeisen Lecture Hall\, ISTA ORGANIZER: SUMMARY:Neuroscience Student Symposium URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6440 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1780390800@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260602T110000 DTEND:20260602T120000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Hannes Bernien\nhosted by Maksym Serbyn\nAbstract: Rec onfigurable arrays of neutral atoms have emerged as a leading platform for quantum science. Their excellent coherence properties combined with progr ammable Rydberg interactions have led to intriguing observations such as q uantum phase transitions\, the discovery of quantum many-body scars\, and novel quantum computing architectures. Here\, I am introducing a dual-spe cies Rydberg array that naturally lends itself for measurement-based proto cols [1] such as quantum error correction\, long-range entangled state pre paration\, and measurement-altered many-body dynamics. Furthermore\, Rydbe rg interactions between the two species then lead to novel regimes\, inclu ding greatly enhanced resonant dipole interactions\, that we use to demons trate a two-qubit gate and quantum non-demolition readout [2]. I will pre sent our current experiments on implementing quantum cellular automata in a dual-species array. Cellular automata are famous for producing complex b ehavior as well as universal computation based on simple initial states an d update rules. Here we investigate this paradigm by implementing an updat e rule based on dual species Rydberg blockade and periodic driving. [1] S ingh\, Bradley\, Anand\, Ramesh\, White\, Bernien\, Science 380\, 1265 (20 23).[2] Anand\, Bradley\, White\, Ramesh\, Singh\, Bernien\, Nature Physic s 20\, 1744 (2024). LOCATION:Office Bldg West / Ground floor / Heinzel Seminar Room (I21.EG.101 )\, ISTA ORGANIZER:Stephanie.Dolot@ist.ac.at SUMMARY:Hannes Bernien: Dual-Species Atom Array Quantum Processors and Quan tum Networks URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6208 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:68776f4c04462887233600@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260603T100000 DTEND:20260603T110000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Renee Zhao\nhosted by Samara Ren\nAbstract: Reconfigur able mechanical systems enable precise programmable control over structura l properties\, expanding opportunities in architected materials\, adaptive devices\, and multifunctional structures. Here\, we introduce elastic rod origami (RodOri)\, a platform that exploits remarkably simple elementspre stressed\, naturally curved rodsinto a system with an extraordinary degree of multistability and configurational richness. For example\, a single si x-rod RodOri unit can easily access 11 distinct configurations\, far excee ding the reconfigurability of conventional origami or general mechanical r econfigurable systems. Individual rods\, constrained under clamped boundar y conditions\, undergo transitions between discrete morphologies whose str ain energy and stiffness are precisely prescribed by their natural curvatu re. Assembling these rods into modular multirod architectures yields metam aterials with numerous stable configurations that can be selectively and r eversibly programmed. This configurational diversity enables tunable stati c stiffness and nonlinear force response\, thus enabling tunable dynamic b ehaviors such as vibration filtering\, wave propagation switching\, and mo de conversion within a single\, easily manufactured platform. By leveragin g curvature-induced mechanical instability\, RodOri unlocks highly program mable static and dynamic mechanical behavior\, offering tailorable design strategies for reconfigurable structures\, soft robotics\, medical devices \, and adaptive materials. The event is followed by a reception right out side the seminar room. LOCATION:Moonstone Bldg / Ground floor / Seminar Room F (I24.EG.030f)\, IST A ORGANIZER:akeri@ist.ac.at SUMMARY:Renee Zhao: Elastic rod origami (RodOri) for programming static and dynamic mechanical properties URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6470 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:686bf613550f7829784669@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260603T130000 DTEND:20260603T143000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Lena Wurzinger\nhosted by Tim Browning\nAbstract: In t his talk\, I will present the method of moments\, a criterion for proving convergence in distribution. We will then discuss some examples of its use in number theory. LOCATION:Central Bldg / O1 / Mondi 2a (I01.O1.008)\, ISTA ORGANIZER:boosthui@ist.ac.at SUMMARY:Lena Wurzinger: Method of moments URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6482 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1780488000@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260603T140000 DTEND:20260603T150000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Antoine El-Hayek\nhosted by Georgios Katsaros\nAbstrac t: Networks can change over time. Whether it is the Facebook network\, whe re 'friendships' emerge or end\, the internet\, where computers connect or disconnect from the network\, or the train network\, where new lines can be created or canceled. This creates specific challenges for algorithms de signed to either run or manage these 'dynamic' networks.A distributed algo rithm is an algorithm that runs on the network. Think of the internet: for computers to communicate through this network\, the algorithm should be i nstalled on both computers\, and both computers won't necessarily have acc ess to the same information. If the network is unstable\, or is simply dyn amic\, the communication between them can drop at any point\, and the algo rithm should be robust to such changes. In this model\, we look at two pro blems: the broadcast problem\, where one computer tries to send a message to every single other computer on the network\, and the majority problem\, where initially each computer is given an opinion among k possible ones\, and the goal is for every computer to know which opinion was originally t he most popular one.A dynamic graph algorithm is an algorithm that manages a dynamic network\, or computes a property on it. Think of the network of webpages. You might want to rank all webpages from the most important one to the least (popular search engines call it the 'PageRank' algorithm). H owever\, every day\, new pages go online\, while old pages go offline. You wouldn't want the algorithm to be run from scratch every night over all o nline webpages\, as this would cost too much energy. Instead\, you would l ike to have an algorithm that\, once it has computed the rank of each webp age at a given time\, be able to handle a few changes\, and update its sol ution accordingly. In the dynamic graph algorithm model\, we look at the m inimum cut problem\, where the goal is is divide the network into two subn etworks\, such that the number of connections from one subnetwork to the o ther is minimized. LOCATION:Moonstone Bldg / Ground floor / Seminar Room F (I24.EG.030f) and Z oom\, ISTA ORGANIZER: SUMMARY:Antoine El-Hayek: Thesis Defense: Handling Updates and Failures: Dy namic Graph Algorithms and Distributed Computing on Dynamic Networks URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6452 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:6848008d5c6c5604065909@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260603T153000 DTEND:20260603T163000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Jean-Louis Colliot-Thélène\nhosted by Tim Browning\n Abstract: A hundred years ago\, extending earlier results of Fermat\, Lege ndre\, Hilbert\, Minkowski\, Helmut Hasse etablished a "local-global princ iple" for the existence of rational solutions of quadratic polynomial equa tions with integral coefficients. The "local" conditions essentially requi re that no congruences prevent the existence of solutions. For polynomials of higher degree\, but with a number of variables bigger than the degree\ , one might hope for a similar local-global principle. I shall survey the proto-history and history of this problem and the many techniques develope d to prove or disprove this "principle" for specific classes of polynomial s. LOCATION:Raiffeisen Lecture Hall\, Central Building\, ISTA ORGANIZER:boosthui@ist.ac.at SUMMARY:Jean-Louis Colliot-Thélène: Local-global principle for the existe nce of solutions for diophantine equations with hopefully many solutions URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6451 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1780909200@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260608T110000 DTEND:20260608T120000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Xiaofeng Cao\nhosted by Xiaoqi Feng \nAbstract: Enviro nmental stresses can induce persistent epigenetic changes that influence f uture developmental and adaptive responses. Understanding how chromatin st ates encode environmental information has emerged as one of central questi ons in plant biology. In this seminar\, Dr. Cao will present recent work from her laboratory on epigenetic regulation and stress memory in plants\ , focusing on the roles of histone modifications and DNA methylation in de velopmental plasticity and environmental adaptation. She will also discuss recent findings showing that stress-induced epigenetic variation can medi ate heritable adaptive cold tolerance in rice\, providing insights into th e molecular basis of transgenerational stress memory. LOCATION:Sunstone Bldg / Ground floor /Big Seminar Room A&B\, ISTA ORGANIZER:Xiaoqi.Feng@ist.ac.at SUMMARY:Xiaofeng Cao: Epigenetic regulation and stress memory URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6490 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1780911000@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260608T113000 DTEND:20260608T123000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Roberto di Leonardo\nhosted by Jérémie Palacci\nAbst ract: Many unicellular organisms can sense light\, reflecting their long e volutionary history in aquatic environments where sunlight provides both e nergy and environmental information. This has given rise to a broad divers ity of light-sensitive proteins that enable cells to exploit photons for m ultiple functions. Modern synthetic biology allows us to repurpose these n atural photoreceptors as biological analogues of optoelectronic components such as switches\, photoresistors\, and solar cells. In this talk\, I wil l focus on three light-activated proteins from evolutionarily diverse unic ellular organisms and show how they can serve as an optical interface to p rogram motility and gene expression. Using a light-driven proton pump\, we can establish feedback loops in which computer programs dynamically modul ate cell motility. This enables bacteria to act as light-reconfigurable pa int\, transport microscopic passive objects by shaping the mechanical pres sure of surrounding swimming cells\, and program biohybrid microrobots for the collection and delivery of microscopic cargo. By rewiring a cyanobact erial light-activated kinase into a synthetic genetic clock in E. coli\, l ight can serve as a zeitgeber\, driving coherent population-wide oscillati ons in gene expression. Finally\, we exploited the natural photophobic res ponse triggered by a light-activated cyclase in Euglena gracilis to design static “light containers” that can spatially sort cells\, leveraging the non-equilibrium nature of this biological version of the billiards pro blem. LOCATION:Raiffeisen Lecture Hall\, ISTA ORGANIZER:diana.zubcevic@ista.ac.at SUMMARY:Roberto di Leonardo: Programming Cell Behavior with Light URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/5793 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1780995600@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260609T110000 DTEND:20260609T120000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Lucas Sylvester Winter\nhosted by Julian Léonard and Maksym Serbyn\nAbstract: Abstract:Standard Dicke superradiance produces a collective burst of radiation but no entanglement. Using finite-size quant um-jump simulations\, we show that adding local Rydberg blockade between a toms generates extensive mixed-state entanglement while preserving superra diance. This enables superradiantly accelerated preparation of correlated dark states on a timescale $\\propto (\\log N)/N$\, supported by an early- time analytical solution and numerical simulations. The physical mechanism is Hilbert-space fragmentation of the Dicke ladder into an exponentially branching decay tree\, giving rise to a hierarchy of correlated dark state s. We propose an experimental realization using existing cavity-coupled Ry dberg atom tweezer arrays and identify a simple stationary-state entanglem ent witness. More broadly\, our results point to Rydberg-blockaded collect ive decay as a general framework for engineering entangled dark states LOCATION:Office Bldg West / Ground floor / Heinzel Seminar Room (I21.EG.101 )\, ISTA ORGANIZER:Stephanie.Dolot@ist.ac.at SUMMARY:Lucas Sylvester Winter: Entanglement in Rydberg-blockaded superradi ance URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6436 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:686bf613550fb862691520@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260610T130000 DTEND:20260610T143000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Julia Brandes\nhosted by Tim Browning\nAbstract: We st udy the minimal conditions under which we can establish asymptotic formula e for Waring's problem and other additive problems that may be tackled by the circle method. We confirm in quantitative terms the well-known heurist ic that a mean value estimate and an estimate of Weyl type\, together with suitable distribution properties of the underlying set over a set of admi ssible residue classes\, are sufficient to implement the circle method. Th is allows us to give a rather general proof of Waring's problem which is a pplicable to a range of sufficiently well-behaved thin sets. LOCATION:Central Bldg / O1 / Mondi 2a (I01.O1.008)\, ISTA ORGANIZER:boosthui@ist.ac.at SUMMARY:Julia Brandes: A minimalist version of the circle method and Diopha ntine problems over thin sets URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6504 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:69e9f31b011f4981900418@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260611T131500 DTEND:20260611T150000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Silvia Sabatini\nhosted by Tamas Hausel\nAbstract: Pos itive monotone symplectic manifolds are the symplectic analogues of Fano v arieties\; namely\, they are compact symplectic manifolds whose first Cher n class coincides with the cohomology class of the symplectic form.In dime nsion six\, if a positive monotone symplectic manifold admits a Hamiltonia n circle action\, a conjecture of Fine and Panov asserts that it is diffeo morphic to a Fano variety. More generally\, the question of whether a posi tive monotone symplectic manifold with symmetries is homotopy equivalent\, homeomorphic\, diffeomorphic\, or symplectomorphic to a Fano variety rema ins wide open.In this talk\, I will report on recent results concerning po sitive monotone symplectic manifolds endowed with a special class of Hamil tonian torus actions\, called GKM_3 actions. I will explain how these stru ctures allow one to prove several finiteness results and quantitative boun ds on the Chern numbers\, therefore in particular\, on the symplectic volu me. The latter resembles the bound obtained by Kollr-Miyaoka-Mori for the volume of Fano varieties. LOCATION:Sunstone Bldg / Ground floor / Big Seminar Room A / 27 seats (I23. EG.102)\, ISTA ORGANIZER:boosthui@ist.ac.at SUMMARY:Silvia Sabatini: Positive monotone symplectic manifolds with symmet ries and GKM spaces URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6464 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1781254800@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260612T110000 DTEND:20260612T120000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Rahul Nandkishore\nhosted by Maksym Serbyn\nAbstract: Abstract: The advent of quantum hardware provides a new playground for m any body physics. Nonlocal quantum games provide a new approach to diagn ose and harness the correlations inherent in phases of matter\, on quantu m hardware. I will introduce the notion of many body quantum games\, The n\, I will introduce a class of quantum games that allow the robust iden tification and harnessing of topological order on quantum hardware. I wi ll then change gears and discuss how this formalism may be used to illumin ate a very old question: how to operationally quantify quantumness in the many body context.   LOCATION:Sunstone Bldg / Ground floor / Big Seminar Room A \, ISTA ORGANIZER:Stephanie.Dolot@ist.ac.at SUMMARY:Rahul Nandkishore: Quantum games and a new perspective on quantumne ss URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6503 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1781600400@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260616T110000 DTEND:20260616T120000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Michael Buchhold\nhosted by Maksym Serbyn\nAbstract: A bstract: Understanding and actively shaping quantum entanglement in many- body systems is a key challenge for modern quantum technologies. Recently\ , monitored quantum dynamics — quantum dynamics with mid-circuit measu rements — has emerged as a powerful tool for harnessing entanglement in NISQ devices and simulating non-equilibrium dynamics in condensed matter s ystems. In this talk\, I will discuss our recent understanding of entangle ment in monitored quantum dynamics from the viewpoint of emergent many-bod y phases and universality. Monitored dynamics generate wave functions with robust entanglement structures\, which depend only on global properties s uch as symmetry and dimensionality\, thereby defining entanglement phases of monitored quantum matter. We anticipate a symmetry classification of mo nitored matter akin to equilibrium quantum matter in Hamiltonian systems\, which I will introduce using exemplary systems in one and two dimensions. I will also highlight our recent analytical and numerical advances and ho w they can be applied to engineer entanglement\, for instance\, in adaptiv e quantum circuits and driven quantum materials. -- Michael BuchholdProf essor of Theoretical Physics\,Department of Theoretical Physics\, Univers ität Innsbruck\, AustriaTel.: +43 512 507 52210Email: michael.buchhold@ui bk.ac.at (mailto:michael.buchhold@uibk.ac.at)Homepage: https://www.uibk.ac .at/en/th-physik/nonequilibrium-quantum-matter/ LOCATION:Office Building West/Ground Floor/Heinzel Seminar Room\, ISTA ORGANIZER:Stephanie.Dolot@ist.ac.at SUMMARY:Michael Buchhold: Monitored quantum matter URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6211 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1781607600@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260616T130000 DTEND:20260616T140000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Konstantin Kueffner\nhosted by Krzysztof Pietrzak\nAbs tract: As automated decision-makers have become ubiquitous in many domains of life\, their decisions have become increasingly consequential. Recent years have shown that such systems can exhibit discriminatory behaviour ag ainst individuals and social groups alike\, thereby amplifying existing bi ases and entrenching socio-economic disparities over time. Algorithmic fai rness addresses this problem by developing methods to quantify and mitigat e unfair behaviour. However\, much of the existing literature studies fair ness in a static pre-deployment setting and\, therefore\, neglects that au tomated decision-makers are often deployed in dynamic environments\, where their behaviour and the populations they affect may change over time.This thesis addresses this gap through the lens of runtime verification. Inste ad of treating fairness as a property of a classifier together with a fixe d input distribution\, it reframes fairness as a property of the interacti on trace between the decision-maker and its deployment environment. To eva luate such sequential fairness properties\, the thesis develops runtime mo nitors that observe the evolving interaction between the system and the en vironment and issue verdicts after each new observation. Because\, these m onitors are designed to detect unfair behaviour during deployment\, they c omplement fair training\, auditing\, verification\, and enforcement by pr oviding an additional layer of mathematically rigorous fairness assurance. In summary\, the thesis develops quantitative\, trace-based analogues of c lassical group and individual fairness measures and constructs monitors fo r them. This includes monitors for long-run group fairness over Markovian traces\, for the time-varying welfare of a changing population in a dynami cal system\, and for the individual fairness of an arbitrary system genera ting a trace of inputs and outputs. To achieve this\, the monitors combine ideas from runtime verification\, sequential statistics\, and nearest-nei ghbour search. In the group-fairness settings\, monitoring is primarily a sequential statistical estimation problem: the monitor must construct stat istically sound interval estimates of fairness values from dependent and p artially observed interactions. In the individual-fairness setting\, the m ain challenge is computational efficiency: the monitor must detect individ ual fairness violations by efficiently comparing the current decision with all previously observed decisions. LOCATION:Central Bldg / O1 / Mondi 3 (I01.O1.010) and Zoom\, ISTA ORGANIZER: SUMMARY:Konstantin Kueffner: Thesis Defense: Monitoring Algorithmic Fairnes s in Sequential Decision Making URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6480 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:6a1e9cbf6eea4640038876@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260616T161500 DTEND:20260616T171500 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Andrew Campbell\nhosted by Laszlo Erdös\nAbstract: Cl assical theorems of Laguerre\, Plya\, Hermite\, and Schur (among others) c haracterized certain differential operators\, which when applied to a univ ariate polynomial preserve the property of all the roots remaining in a sp ecified domain\, for example the real line. These results have been extend ed to general linear operators on multivariate polynomials\, with the clas sification problem completely resolved for many important domains. We will discuss some of the motivations behind these Plya-Schur problems and thei r relationship to Voiculescu's free probability. Specifically\, we will se e that recent works in finite free probability on root distributions under the backwards heat flow and repeated differentiation can be generalized t o any free infinitely divisible law. At the end of the talk we will discus s the natural random matrix ensembles associated with these root preservin g operators. Our approach is motivated by these ensembles and the resolven t method in random matrix theory\, as opposed to combinatorial approaches common in finite free probability. Based on joint work with Jonas Jalowy ( https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.31356). LOCATION:Office Bldg West / Ground floor / Heinzel Seminar Room (I21.EG.101 )\, ISTA ORGANIZER:boosthui@ist.ac.at SUMMARY:Andrew Campbell: Pólya-Schur problems\, free probability\, and rel ated random matrix models URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6493 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1781702100@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260617T151500 DTEND:20260617T161500 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Yunzhe Li\nhosted by Maksym Serbyn\nAbstract: We study spectral rigidity and nonrigidity phenomena in dynamical systems. The cen tral question is whether a dynamical system can be determined\, up to a na tural conjugacy\, by its spectrum.The first part of the talk focuses on st andard maps from the viewpoint of action spectra. We construct nontrivial deformations of the standard map that preserve the symplectic actions of i nfinitely many periodic orbits accumulating onto an invariant curve. This result can be viewed as a symplectic twist-map analogue of length-spectral nonrigidity phenomena for Riemannian manifolds and convex billiards\, mot ivating the problem of constructing analogous “partially length-isospect ral” deformations of strictly convex billiard tables. The proof combines a resonant normal form construction with Picard iteration schemes to prod uce a sequence of periodic orbits accumulating on an invariant curve with a Liouville rotation number. The second part of the talk briefly explores rigidity questions for Liouville metrics on the two-dimensional torus. A long-standing folklore conjecture asserts that Liouville metrics are the o nly integrable metrics on the torus. We give a length-spectral rigidity re sult for the class of trigonometric conformal deformations of Liouville me trics by exploiting the dynamical properties of rational tori\, which are analogues of resonant convex caustics in billiards. We also establish a co mplementary classification result showing that marked-length-isospectral L iouville metrics are characterized by rearrangements of the one-dimensiona l functions appearing in their conformal factors\, generalizing a theorem of Abbondandolo and Mazzucchelli. In particular\, this result yields many nonrigidity examples within the class of Liouville metrics. LOCATION:Office Bldg West / Ground floor / Heinzel Seminar Room (I21.EG.101 ) and Zoom\, ISTA ORGANIZER: SUMMARY:Yunzhe Li: Thesis Defense: Spectral Rigidity and Nonrigidity of Dyn amical Systems URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6506 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:68776f011d8c3722554400@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260618T110000 DTEND:20260618T120000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Cecilia Herrero\nhosted by Baptiste Coquinot (RG Lemes hko)\nAbstract: Nanofluidics studies the behavior of fluids confined at th e nanometer scale\, where interfaces dominate transport and give rise to p henomena absent at larger scales. Beyond its fundamental interest\, this f ield offers promising perspectives for applications such as water desalina tion and energy harvesting.In this seminar\, I will discuss how nanoscale confinement modifies fluid transport through the emergence of characterist ic interfacial length scales\, with a particular focus on the so-called sl ip length\, related to liquidsolid friction. I will show how the nature of the solid surface (such as roughness or mechanical and electronic fluctua tions) can strongly affect transport properties. Finally\, I will present recent insights into the impact of charge fluctuations at interfaces on li quidsolid friction and transport\, and how these effects can be investigat ed using theory and molecular dynamics simulations opening the path to exp eriments. These phenomena open new possibilities for coupling hydrodynamic and electrostatic effects\, with potential applications to the conversion of osmotic energy into electrical power. LOCATION:Office Bldg West / Ground floor / Heinzel Seminar Room (I21.EG.101 )\, ISTA ORGANIZER:michaela.pucher@ist.ac.at SUMMARY:Cecilia Herrero: Nanofluidics and the power of interfaces: new pers pectives for energy conversion URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6472 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:6a06d37191b9c076587052@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260618T113000 DTEND:20260618T123000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Daniel Rutschmann\nAbstract: Comparison based sorting is a well understood problem. There are many algorithms that sort n items in O(n log n) comparisons\, and this is tight since log(n!) (n log n). Bu t what if you already know that some elements are smaller than others? Can you then sort in fewer than (n log n) comparisons?We can encode this prio r information as a directed acyclic graph G that contains a vertex for eve ry item\, and an edge x y if we already know that x < y. If there are e(G ) sorted orders (permutations) compatible with G\, then any algorithm must perform (log e(G)) comparisons. The problem of Sorting from Partial Infor mation is to match this bound\, that is\, to design an efficient algorithm that\, given the graph G\, sorts the items in O(log e(G)) comparisons.Suc h an algorithm is optimal in a very strong sense: Not only is it optimal f or every input size n\, but it is optimal for every graph G\; we call such an algorithm universally optimal. There are many fundamental problems tha t have textbook algorithms with a running time of (n log n). For these pro blems\, we ask: Can we design algorithms that run in o(n log n) time on su bsets of inputs characterized by a graph G? Can we achieve universal optim ality? This concept applies not only to graph algorithms such as Dijkstra' s or Prim's\, but also to a wide range of fundamental problems\, including set intersection and convex hulls. LOCATION:Office Bldg West / Ground floor / Foyer seminar room (I21.EG.128)\ , ISTA ORGANIZER:joanders@ist.ac.at SUMMARY:Daniel Rutschmann: TCS Seminar - From Sorting under Partial Informa tion to Universal Optimality URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6509 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:665dbdca9d01d401146589@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260618T131500 DTEND:20260618T150000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Jianrong Li\nhosted by Tamas Hausel\nAbstract: Frenkel and Reshetikhin introduced q-characters for finite-dimensional representa tions of quantum affine algebras\, providing a fundamental tool in their r epresentation theory. Together with Tomasz Przezdziecki\, we defined bound ary q-characters for finite dimensional representations of quantum affine symmetric pairs of split and quasi-split types. In this talk\, I will pres ent a new joint work Tomasz Przezdziecki on evaluation modules for split q uantum affine symmetric pairs. By computing the action of generators in Lu and Wangs Drinfeld-type presentation on GelfandTsetlin bases\, we determi ne the spectrum of a large commutative subalgebra arising from this presen tation. This leads to an explicit formula for boundary analogues of q-char acters\, which we interpret combinatorially in terms of semistandard Young tableaux. Our results show that boundary q-characters share familiar feat ures with ordinary q-characters\, while also exhibiting new phenomena\, in cluding an additional symmetry. LOCATION:Office Bldg West / Ground floor / Heinzel Seminar Room (I21.EG.101 )\, ISTA ORGANIZER:boosthui@ist.ac.at SUMMARY:Jianrong Li: Boundary q-characters of finite-dimensional representa tions of quantum affine symmetric pairs URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6284 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1781787600@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260618T150000 DTEND:20260618T193000 DESCRIPTION:Abstract: We are pleased to invite you to join us at the 2026 G raduation Ceremony.This memorable event will take place on Thursday\, June 18\, 2026\, at 3:00 pmin the Moonstone Building (Seminar Center on the Gr ound floor).Please note that registration is required to attend the ceremo ny and reception.- Register here – (https://pretix.eu/ista-events/gradua tion26/)We kindly ask you to register by June 12. Kind regards\,Graduate School Office | Events Office LOCATION:Moonstone Seminar Center\, ISTA ORGANIZER:events@ista.ac.at SUMMARY:Graduation Ceremony 2026 URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6273 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1782120600@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260622T113000 DTEND:20260622T123000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Jiri Friml & Leonid Sazanov\nhosted by Carl-Philipp He isenberg\nAbstract: Auxin Signalling: Deconstructing a Long-Standing Parad igm in Plant BiologyAuxin is a major endogenous regulator of plant growth and development and one of the longest-studied plant hormones. The discove ry that auxin induces the transcription of hundreds of genes enabled the i dentification of key transcriptional regulators: Auxin Response Factors (A RFs) and their repressors\, the Aux/IAA (Auxin/Indole-3-acetic acid) prote ins. In parallel\, genetic screens for auxin-insensitive mutants uncovered components of the ubiquitin ligase machinery responsible for targeted pro tein degradation\, most notably TIR1 (Transport Inhibitor Response 1)\, an F-box component of the ubiquitin ligase complex.The resulting model is re markably simple: auxin promotes the interaction between TIR1-type auxin re ceptors and Aux/IAA co-receptors. This leads to Aux/IAA ubiquitination and degradation\, releasing ARFs from repression and enabling transcriptional responses. The model elegantly explained existing observations\, inspired the discovery of analogous repressor-degradation mechanisms in other path ways\, and withstood the test of time for more than two decades.Neverthele ss\, live imaging using a vertical-stage microscope developed at ISTA reve aled that auxin-induced root growth inhibition occurs within 30 seconds— far too rapidly to involve transcription. This finding led to the discover y that TIR1-type receptors also function as adenylyl cyclases (ACs)\, enzy mes that produce cyclic AMP (cAMP)\, a prominent second messenger in anima l cells. Subsequent studies demonstrated that cAMP is an indispensable com ponent of auxin signal transduction\, fundamentally challenging the canoni cal model of auxin action.Here\, I will trace the history of auxin signall ing\, from its discovery to the unexpected revisions that have recently re shaped the field.____________A Huge Molecular Proton Pump - How Complex I Works?Mitochondria are the “powerhouses” of eukaryotes. Mitochondrial (and often bacterial) respiratory chains comprise several large\, inner-me mbrane-embedded protein assemblies. Complexes I\, III\, and IV create a pr oton gradient across the membrane\, which then drives the rotary ATP synth ase. This system powers life by continuously providing ATP—humans turn o ver roughly their body weight of this energy-rich molecule every day. We s tudy the structure and mechanism of these enzymes and their supercomplexes using cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) and functional assays.Compl ex I is the first and largest enzyme in the chain\, consisting of up to 45 different subunits with a total molecular mass of about 1 MDa. It couples the transfer of two electrons from NADH to ubiquinone to the translocatio n of four protons across the membrane by a mechanism that is still hotly d ebated. Complex I has three antiporter-like subunits plus one additional s imilar domain\, which were previously thought to be responsible for pumpin g one proton each per catalytic cycle.We have solved high-resolution cryo- EM structures of complex I from several mammalian\, yeast\, and bacterial species under various conditions\, including catalytic turnover. Unexpecte dly\, we demonstrated that only one distal antiporter-like subunit is capa ble of ejecting protons into mitochondrial intermembrane space (or bacteri al periplasm). Dramatic conformational changes around the quinone-binding cavity couple the redox reaction to proton translocation during “open-to -closed” state transitions of the enzyme. In the “open” state\, the Q-cavity is widely open\, allowing quinone to enter and exit. In the “cl osed” state\, the cavity is tightly enclosed around the bound quinone\, meaning the protons needed to complete quinone reduction must originate fr om the central axis of the membrane domain. This initiates a “domino-eff ect” cascade of electrostatic interactions within the antiporter-like su bunits\, ultimately resulting in the ejection of four protons per catalyti c cycle from the distal subunit.Our proposed mechanism for complex I is an unexpected combination of conformational changes and electrostatic intera ctions. It challenges the paradigm held over the last decade\, yet it is r obust and explains all the unique features of complex I resolved in recent structural studies. LOCATION:Raifeisen Lecture Hall\, ISTA ORGANIZER:diana.zubcevic@ista.ac.at SUMMARY:Jiri Friml & Leonid Sazanov: Auxin Signalling: Deconstructing a Lon g-Standing Paradigm in Plant Biology & A Huge Molecular Proton Pump - How Complex I Works? URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6481 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1782201600@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260623T100000 DTEND:20260623T110000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Lea Becker\nhosted by Robert Seiringer\nAbstract: Char acterizing protein dynamics at the atomic level is essential for our under standing of biological mechanisms. Whether it is to facilitate metabolite transport\, catalyze reactions\, transmit signals\, or regulate metabolism – proteins are constantly in motion and sample multiple conformational states to fulfill their function. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectro scopy is particularly well suited to elucidate the dynamics of biomolecule s on their complex free-energy landscape. In particular\, solid-state magi c-angle spinning (MAS) NMR enables the study of large molecular assemblies \, protein crystals\, or insoluble proteins at atomic resolution without a n inherent molecular size limitation. MAS NMR experiments to probe protein dynamics are extremely versatile and sensitive to motional timescales fro m picoseconds to seconds. Over the past decades\, technological advances\, developments in experimental design\, and new isotope-labeling approaches have further expanded the possibilities of this technique and significant ly improved the accuracy of the determined motional parameters.Functionall y important sites of proteins often contain aromatic residues. Their side- chain motions have therefore long served as valuable indicators of mechani stically relevant dynamics in NMR studies. In this thesis\, site-specifica lly labeled aromatic residues act as sensitive reporters for MAS NMR studi es of protein dynamics. The first part addresses how different environment s impact side-chain motion by probing ring flips of phenylalanines and tyr osines in crystalline proteins and amyloid fibrils. It provides important insights for the analysis of dynamics obtained in non-native protein envir onments and emphasizes the complex factors that determine the timescale of internal dynamics. In the second part\, the focus shifts towards methodol ogical questions regarding the investigation of protein dynamics by 19F MA S NMR. The fluorine nucleus exhibits promising characteristics for NMR stu dies but also presents significant challenges\, which is why the full meth odological potential of 19F MAS NMR has not been fully realized yet. This work demonstrates that paramagnetic doping can considerably reduce the mea surement time and improve the sensitivity of fluorinated samples. Finally\ , 19F MAS NMR is evaluated as a tool for studying protein side-chain dynam ics on the example of tryptophans. The results illustrate the challenges i n analyzing such experiments and lay the foundation for further developmen t of 19F MAS NMR relaxation studies.Taken together\, this thesis highlight s the potential of combining specific isotope labeling\, MAS NMR\, and com plementary methods such as crystallography and computational simulations t o elucidate internal protein dynamics. The further development of such int egrative approaches will be crucial to improving our understanding of comp lex mechanisms and protein function. LOCATION:Central Bldg / O1 / Mondi 2a (I01.O1.008)\, ISTA ORGANIZER: SUMMARY:Lea Becker: Thesis Defense: Exploring protein dynamics using specif ic labeling approaches for solid-state MAS NMR URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6447 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:6a1e9cbf6f336379210386@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260623T161500 DTEND:20260623T171500 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Filippo Quattrocchi\nhosted by Jan Maas\nAbstract: Man y evolutionary PDEs\, both linear and nonlinear (e.g.\, the heat and porou s medium equations)\, can be seen as gradient flows in the Wasserstein met ric space of probability measures. This classical result provides general tools for existence\, numerical approximation\, uniqueness\, and convergen ce estimates under weak assumptions. In this talk\, we extend this perspec tive to dynamics driven by an interplay of conservative and dissipative ef fects.Our main result is the interpretation of the nonlinear kinetic Fokke r-Planck equation as a gradient flow of the free energy in a suitable spac e of measures. The geometry of this space is physically motivated\, induce d by discrepancies that measure the minimal force needed to steer one conf iguration into another. As a consequence\, we obtain approximations of sol utions via an implicit Euler scheme.This talk is based on arXiv:2502.15665 \, in collaboration with G. Brigati (ISTA) and J. Maas (ISTA)\, and ongoin g work with G. Brigati (ISTA)\, G. Carlier (CEREMADE\, Paris Dauphine-PSL) \, and J. Dolbeault (CEREMADE\, Paris Dauphine-PSL). LOCATION:Office Bldg West / Ground floor / Heinzel Seminar Room (I21.EG.101 )\, ISTA ORGANIZER:boosthui@ist.ac.at SUMMARY:Filippo Quattrocchi: Nonlinear kinetic equations as gradient flows URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6520 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:6a358154ee7fd120793416@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260625T113000 DTEND:20260625T123000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Aurora Rossi\nAbstract: This talk introduces Temporal Graph Neural Networks (TGNNs) as models for learning from systems that com bine relational structure and temporal dynamics. Starting from basic neura l network concepts\, we build up to graph neural networks\, message passin g\, and temporal graph settings\, distinguishing between static graphs wit h time-varying features and fully evolving graph structures. Through examp les in synthetic forecasting\, traffic prediction\, and brain activity mod eling\, the tutorial illustrates when graph information can improve tempor al learning and how TGNNs capture spatio-temporal dependencies in real-wor ld networks. LOCATION:Office Bldg West / Ground floor / Heinzel Seminar Room (I21.EG.101 )\, ISTA ORGANIZER:joanders@ist.ac.at SUMMARY:Aurora Rossi: TCS Seminar - An Introduction to Temporal Graph Neura l Networks URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6528 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1782720000@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260629T100000 DTEND:20260629T110000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Jakub Löwit\nhosted by Krishnendu Chatterjee\nAbstrac t: We develop and employ techniques from equivariant algebraic K-theory an d related invariants in the context of geometric representation theory\, i n both arithmetic and topological situations. We showcase the use of such techniques on the affine Grassmannian Gr\, a space of fundamental interest in the geometric Langlands program. LOCATION:Office Bldg West / Ground floor / Heinzel Seminar Room (I21.EG.101 ) and Zoom\, ISTA ORGANIZER: SUMMARY:Jakub Löwit: Thesis Defense: Equivariant K-theory of affine Grassm annians in representation theory and arithmetic URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6500 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1782725400@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260629T113000 DTEND:20260629T123000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Julia Reisenbauer & Charles Roques-Carmes\nhosted by J ohannes Fink & Latha Venkataraman\nAbstract: Scaling Light\, Integrating M atter\, Imaging the NanoscaleModern photonic technologies increasingly rel y on the ability to control\, manipulate\, and process light within compac t and scalable integrated platforms. At the same time\, advances in functi onal and quantum materials are expanding the range of optical phenomena th at can be engineered on chip\, enabling new approaches to light generation \, detection\, nonlinear interactions\, and radiation sensing. As photonic circuits grow from a few elements to hundreds or thousands of reconfigura ble degrees of freedom\, they open new opportunities in imaging\, sensing\ , computing\, and quantum technologies.In this talk\, I will describe how my group at ISTA aims to build next-generation optoelectronic platforms by combining scalable photonics\, functional materials\, and advanced charac terization. I will first discuss programmable integrated photonic systems that manipulate partially coherent light on chip\, enabling new measuremen t modalities that would be difficult to realize in free space. I will then turn to the integration of emerging materials into nanophotonic devices\, with a focus on radiation-sensitive materials that can reshape how X-rays are converted into optical information. These platforms point toward nano photonic scintillators\, metasurface-enhanced radiation detectors\, and qu antum-optical approaches to high-energy imaging.Finally\, I will discuss t he microscopy tools we are developing to characterize these increasingly c omplex nanophotonic and nanomaterial systems. More broadly\, our goal is t o establish integrated photonics as a scalable physical platform for revea ling\, controlling\, and exploiting light-matter interactions across optic al\, quantum\, and high-energy regimes._______Reprogramming Enzymes to Cat alyze Non-native ReactionsEnzymes are Nature’s catalysts\, evolved to co nstruct and degrade molecules with remarkable efficiency and selectivity. Although their activities have been shaped by natural selection to fulfill specific biological functions\, many enzymes retain promiscuous catalytic activities toward non-native substrates and reactions. By leveraging fund amental concepts such as catalytic promiscuity and directed evolution\, we repurpose and engineer these enzymes for applications in synthetic chemis try and bioremediation\, enabling the degradation of emerging environmenta l contaminants while simultaneously expanding the accessible chemical spac e and introducing new reactions to the synthetic chemist’s toolkit. LOCATION:ISTA | Central Building | Raiffeisen Lecture Hall\, ISTA ORGANIZER:diana.zubcevic@ista.ac.at SUMMARY:Julia Reisenbauer & Charles Roques-Carmes: Scaling Light\, Integrat ing Matter\, Imaging the Nanoscale & Reprogramming Enzymes to Catalyze Non -native Reactions URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6385 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:6a313b62abbad282106005@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260629T140000 DTEND:20260629T150000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Morgan Chabanon\nhosted by Jérémie Palacci\nAbstract : Transport phenomena in biological systems are essential for life-sustain ing functions. Here we propose to approach biological materials such as ti ssues\, biofilms and cells as porous media.We will first focus on the pass ive transport of macromolecules in the intracellular space\, involved in f unctions such as cell migration\, blebbing and apoptosis. While intracellu lar crowding significantly impacts macromolecule mobility\, the mechanisms by which cytoplasmic structures influence diffusion remain unclear. We pr opose a multiscale diffusion model based on an upscaling method developed for porous media. Model predictions\, compared to experimental measurement s in live cells\, highlight two key diffusion reduction mechanisms: tortuo sity and hydrodynamic drag. Importantly\, we find that effective cytosolic diffusivity depends on intracellular obstacle volume fraction rather than specific cellular regions.We will then consider suspensions of motile bac teria in porous media\, relevant for soil bioremediation and biomedical ap plications. In confined environments at high cell density\, these suspensi ons behave as active fluids displaying self-sustained coherent or chaotic flows. We use a continuum framework derived from FokkerPlanck descriptions to predict emerging flows in channels with different pore geometries as a function of activity and pressure gradient. Numerical results show a devi ation from Darcy law\, which we relate to an activity enhanced permeabilit y.Altogether\, these results demonstrate the potential of porous media mod eling to better understand transport phenomena in living matter across sca les and systems. LOCATION:Moonstone Bldg / Ground floor / Seminar Room F (I24.EG.030f)\, IST A ORGANIZER:cpetz@ist.ac.at SUMMARY:Morgan Chabanon: Transport in porous media modelling of intracellul ar diffusion and active bacteria suspensions URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6524 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:6a228b5ab4e49352705797@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260630T161500 DTEND:20260630T171500 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Reuben Drogin\nhosted by Laszlo Erdös\nAbstract: The FurstenbergKesten theorem asserts that the singular values of a product of IID random matrices grow or decay exponentially at deterministic rates\, called Lyapunov exponents. Classical results give qualitative criteria ens uring that these exponents are distinct and or positive\, but many applica tions\, e.g. the theory of random band matrices\, require quantitative est imates. We discuss such estimates and their connections to localization fo r random band matrices. In particular\, we show the Lyapunov exponents ass ociated with a class of 2W x 2W transfer matrices are separated at scale 1 /W\, and the top Lyapunov exponent converges to a deterministic limit as W tends to infinity. LOCATION:Office Bldg West / Ground floor / Heinzel Seminar Room (I21.EG.101 )\, ISTA ORGANIZER:boosthui@ist.ac.at SUMMARY:Reuben Drogin: Singular Values of Random Matrix Products and Random Band Matrices URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6501 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:6a1e9cbf6f7a1927120699@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260630T171500 DTEND:20260630T181500 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Francesco Pedrotti\nhosted by Jan Maas\nAbstract: The cutoff phenomenon is a sharp transition in the convergence of high-dimensi onal Markov chains to equilibrium: the total variation distance remains cl ose to 1 for a long time and then rapidly decreases to almost 0 over a muc h shorter time window.It was initially discovered in the context of card s huffling by Diaconis and Shahshahani\, and since then observed in a variet y of different models. In spite of its ubiquity\, it is still largely unex plained\, and most proofs are model-specific.In this talk\, we discuss a h igh-level approach to establishing cutoff based on transport inequalities\ , and we illustrate it for a popular algorithm known as the Proximal Sampl er.Based on joint work with Justin Salez. LOCATION:Office Bldg West / Ground floor / Heinzel Seminar Room (I21.EG.101 )\, ISTA ORGANIZER:boosthui@ist.ac.at SUMMARY:Francesco Pedrotti: A transport approach to the cutoff phenomenon URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6502 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1782918000@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260701T170000 DTEND:20260701T180000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Simone Bombari\nhosted by Matthew Kwan\nAbstract: Arti ficial intelligence and machine learning have undergone an unprecedented e volution in the past decade\, motivating a research effort toward a theory able to capture the qualitative behavior of large-scale neural systems. A central puzzle has been the clear benefit of scaling architecture size an d overfitting the training set in supervised learning tasks. This evidence \, in apparent contradiction with classical statistical learning theory\, pushed researchers to develop a new theory capturing the interplay between the algorithmic and architectural bias of training and the specific targe t function\, differently from previous methods rooted in uniform stability .This approach has enabled a grounded understanding of novel learning regi mes\, typically through formal limits where the number of training samples $n$\, data dimensions $d$\, and model parameters $p$ grow to infinity at different rates.In this thesis\, we follow this approach\, focusing on the trustworthiness of high-dimensional models: properties that are difficult to control during training or deployment and often emerge under unpredict able or adversarial conditions. In such settings\, it is crucial to formal ly ensure a priori the reliability of machine learning systems.First\, we study data memorization\, both as label fitting and as the storage of priv ate information about training samples in trained parameters. We prove tha t $p = \\Omega(n)$ parameters are sufficient for a deep neural network to memorize a generic set of labels\, and for a model to memorize spurious fe atures across training data. We then give evidence that $p = \\Omega(dn)$ parameters are instead necessary for an adversary to reconstruct the full training set from the trained parameters.Second\, we study robustness\, bo th to adversarial perturbations and to distribution shift. We first prove that $p = \\Omega(dn)$ parameters can be sufficient for a class of neural networks to overfit the training data while guaranteeing robustness to adv ersarial perturbations. Then\, we focus on spurious correlations learning in high-dimensional regression\, studying the effect of the ridge regulari zation parameter in the proportional regime $n = \\Theta(d)$\, and connect ing it via an equivalence argument to the role of over-parameterization $p = \\Omega(n)$ in neural networks. We also investigate the architectural b ias of attention-based networks\, showing that they are sensitive to the r eplacement of individual words in an embedded sentence\, allowing them to generalize on sentences where the contextual meaning depends on one or few words.Finally\, we study differentially private optimization in high-dime nsional regimes. We prove that standard private gradient methods do not su ffer in the over-parameterized regime $p = \\Omega(n)$\, challenging the c urrent wisdom based on stability-derived generalization bounds. We then co nsider linear regression in the proportional regime $n = \\Theta(d)$\, sho wing that standard private gradient descent can achieve optimal rates unde r appropriate hyper-parameter scaling\, such as sufficiently small gradien t clipping constants\, whose role is still debated in practice. LOCATION:Office Bldg West / Ground floor / Heinzel Seminar Room (I21.EG.101 ) and Zoom\, ISTA ORGANIZER: SUMMARY:Simone Bombari: Thesis Defense: Trustworthy Machine Learning in Hig h Dimensions URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6499 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1783004400@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260702T170000 DTEND:20260702T180000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Ignacio Cirac\nhosted by Julian Léonard & Maksym Serb yn\nAbstract: Advancements in quantum computing have enabled the developme nt of small-scale quantum computers that operate according to the principl es of quantum physics. One of the most important prospective applications of these devices is the simulation of complex quantum systems\, which aris e across many areas of physics and chemistry. Such simulations are notorio usly difficult\, if not impossible\, for classical computers\, even the mo st powerful supercomputers\, due to the exponential growth of required com putational resources with the number of particles in the system. In this talk\, I will first show how both analog and digital quantum devices could circumvent this limitation. Despite rapid progress\, however\, applicatio ns in this area remain limited\, as current quantum devices are imperfect: errors accumulate and pose serious challenges for solving practically rel evant problems. I will discuss how\, even in the presence of such errors\, near-term quantum computers can already become powerful tools for scienti fic discovery.A reception with food and drinks will be available for all r egistered guest after the lecture\, free of charge.Register here (https:// assets-eur.mkt.dynamics.com/c4c27152-17ec-47dc-b101-24b7ac15e0e6/digitalas sets/standaloneforms/432e0451-b7fa-4f34-bdbe-bd16d6a34eab?readableEventId= New_event_7110658852) Climate-friendly arrival & departureA shuttle bus w ill be available from Heiligenstadt at 14:57 - 15:57The regular shuttle bu s will return to Heiligenstadt at 18:28 - 18:58 - 19:28 - 20:28The s huttle bus is free of charge for all registered guests.How to get to ISTA Campus (https://ist.ac.at/en/campus/how-to-get-here/#msdynttrid=H5PQdGhs-B twLvoi1_nrHlgBiWNIt8n5CeLi0Mv1Y_4) The aim is to organize the event in ac cordance with the criteria of the Austrian Ecolabel for Green Meetings (ht tps://www.umweltzeichen.at/de/green-meetings-und-events/home). If you have any questions about the event's sustainability standards\, please contact the Green Event Officer Julia Kainrath (julia.kainrath@ista.ac.at). LOCATION:Raiffeisen Lecture Hall\, ISTA ORGANIZER:events@ista.ac.at SUMMARY:Ignacio Cirac: ISTA Lecture | Ignacio Cirac URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6496 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1783076400@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260703T130000 DTEND:20260703T140000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Xin Tong\nhosted by Carl Goodrich\nAbstract: Embryo cl eavage — a series of rapid\, reductive cell divisions — is the first m orphogenetic movement following fertilisation. It lays the foundation for subsequent developmental events\, including gastrulation\, germ layer spec ification\, organogenesis\, and the establishment of the overall body plan . Two major modes of cleavage exist in the animal kingdom: holoblastic (co mplete) and meroblastic (incomplete) cleavage. Because holoblastic cleavag e resembles canonical cytokinesis\, its biochemical and mechanical basis h as been extensively studied — an annular contractile ring forms at the e quator and constricts in a purse-string-like manner\, leading to the compl ete separation of two daughter cells. In contrast\, although meroblastic c leavage occurs widely across the animal kingdom (e.g. in fish\, reptiles\, birds\, and cephalopod molluscs)\, its mechanical basis remains largely u nclear. During meroblastic cleavage\, the cytokinetic furrow forms only at one pole and does not traverse the entire embryo\, raising the question o f how cytokinesis proceeds in the absence of a closed contractile ring. Mo reover\, the resulting daughter cells are not fully separated from the und erlying yolk compartment\, and how these blastomeres are subsequently cell ularised remains unknown. This thesis takes the zebrafish as a model organ ism to address both questions. The first part characterises the biochemica l and mechanical mechanisms underlying non-canonical meroblastic cleavage\ , revealing a two-phase process in which actomyosin cable contraction and cadherin-mediated membrane adhesion act sequentially to drive furrow ingre ssion and invagination. The second part sheds light on the spatiotemporal dynamics by which individual blastomeres become cellularised\, and uncover s a previously unrecognised contribution of central blastomeres to the yol k syncytial layer. LOCATION:Central Bldg / O1 / Mondi 3 (I01.O1.010) \, ISTA ORGANIZER: SUMMARY:Xin Tong: Thesis Defense: Towards a deeper understanding of merobla stic cleavage - biochemical mechanisms of partial cytokinesis and cellular ization in zebrafish embryogenesis URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6519 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1783495380@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260708T092300 DTEND:20260708T092300 DESCRIPTION: LOCATION:Raiffeisen Lecture Hall\, ISTA ORGANIZER:diana.zubcevic@ista.ac.at SUMMARY:Special Colloquium | Presentation of AURAS Survey Results URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6549 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1783598400@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260709T140000 DTEND:20260709T150000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: David Michalik\nhosted by Eva Benková\nAbstract: MDA5 is an antiviral protein that is activated by long dsRNA molecules. This R NA can be of various origins such as viral\, bacterial\, synthetic or\, up on certain stimuli\, even cellularsources. Upon sensing immunogenic RNA\, MDA5 coats the dsRNA\, forming a filament. Filament formation brings CARD domains into close proximity\, resulting in CARD oligomerisation. These ol igomers are not involved in the RNA recognition but are crucial for activa tion of downstream signalling. MDA5 activation leads to a type I interfero n response and apoptosis. Loss of function mutations are linked to recurre nt\, life-threatening viral infections whereas gain of function mutations are linked to monogenic and polygenic autoimmune diseases. For these reaso ns\, MDA5 needs to be tightly regulated by various mechanisms including po st-translational modifications\, post-transcriptional modifications\, and protein-protein interactions. In the first chapter\, we focused on the cha racterisation of novel phosphorylation sites in MDA5. Using biochemistry\, molecular dynamics simulations\, virology\, cell biology and mass spectro metry\, we characterised two phosphorylation sites that altered MDA5 activ ity andwere regulated in cells upon EMCV infection or IFN-β treatment. Fu rthermore\, we discovered an additional phosphorylation site in a non-cons erved region\, which is upregulated under both stimuli.In the second chapt er\, we focused on biochemical\, biophysical\, and structural characterisa tion of various RNAs and MDA5 filaments assembled on them. We discovered t hat poly I:C\, a synthetic RNA used to activate an immune response in cell s\, has distinct physicochemical characteristics and is not a true mimic o f viral RNA\, as is often described. Additionally\, we used cryogenic elec tron microscopy to gain structural insights into which RNA features define a strong activator of MDA5. To address this\, we compared poly I:C to pol y A:U\, an RNA that does not activate an MDA5 signalling in cells\, and to a virus-derived dsRNA. In the last chapter\, we focused on activators of MDA5 signalling. In the first part\, we present our efforts to isolate and identify a small molecule agonist of MDA5. In the last part\, we describ ed our contribution to a collaborative project during which we characteris ed the interaction of ANXA2 with MDA5 and activation of MDA5 by a small mo lecule. LOCATION:Office Bldg West / Ground floor / Foyer seminar room (I21.EG.128)\ , ISTA ORGANIZER: SUMMARY:David Michalik: Thesis Defense: Mechanistic insights into MDA5 sele ctivity and regulation URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6508 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:67ff786e1151f433679635@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260710T150000 DTEND:20260710T160000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Ryan J. Murphy\nhosted by Edouard Hannezo\nAbstract: E xperiments in biology generate a vast amount of data across multiple spati al and temporal scales. However\, interpreting such complex data is challe nging. Mechanistic mathematical modelling\, together with statistical mode lling\, provides a powerful framework for exploiting such data to achieve mechanistic understanding\, quantitative insights\, and discoveries. In th is talk\, I will present novel mathematical models and techniques that I h ave developed and applied to improve practical understanding of routinely performed two- and three-dimensional biological experiments for cancer gro wth\, nanoparticle-based therapeutics\, and developmental biology. Mathema tically\, this involves stochastic individual-based models\, coarse-graini ng procedures\, coupled systems of nonlinear partial differential equation s\, free-boundary problems\, and multi-scale mechanochemical models that c apture key biological heterogeneity. LOCATION:Mondi Seminar Room 2\, Central Building\, ISTA ORGANIZER:kiyer@ist.ac.at SUMMARY:Ryan J. Murphy: Multiscale modelling of heterogeneous cell-tissue d ynamics URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/5823 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1784038500@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260714T161500 DTEND:20260714T180000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Lihan Wang\nhosted by Giovanni Brigati\nAbstract: Abst ract: In this talk\, we discuss the long-time behavior of three most comm only used piecewise deterministic samplers\, namely Randomized Hamiltonian Monte Carlo (RHMC)\, Zigzag process (ZZP) and Bouncy Particle Sampler (BP S). All of these\, alongside kinetic Langevin dynamics\, are second-order lifts of the overdamped Langevin dynamics. The kinetic samplers are advant ageous due to its potentially accelerated long-time convergence rates and high accuracy in numerical implementation. We discuss the long-time behavi or of these samplers\, in both L^2 energy and relative entropy\, and showc ase the difference between these dynamics\, as well as the difference betw een L^2 energy and entropy\, explaining why the convergence results in ent ropy cannot be generalized to entropy. Joint works with Jianfeng Lu (Duke) and Pierre Monmarché (U Gustave Eiffel). LOCATION:Office Bldg West / Ground floor / Heinzel Seminar Room (I21.EG.101 )\, ISTA ORGANIZER:Birgit.Oosthuizen-Noczil@ist.ac.at SUMMARY:Lihan Wang: Long-time behavior of piecewise deterministic samplers: from energy to entropy\, convergence and non-convergence URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6545 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1784278800@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260717T110000 DTEND:20260717T120000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Christine Fiedler\nhosted by Edouard Hannezo\nAbstract : Thermoelectric materials can directly convert between heat and electrici ty\, offering a route toward sustainable energy generation. However\, thei r use remains limited to niche applications due to high fabrication costs and relatively low efficiencies compared to competing energy technologies. Tin chalcogenides such as SnSe and SnS are promising candidates and\, whe n processed via solution-based routes\, provide a scalable and lower-cost alternative to conventional solid-state synthesis\, opening pathways towar d broader adoption. However\, realizing their full potential in polycrysta lline form requires a deeper understanding of how defects\, dopants\, and microstructure govern charge and heat transport.This thesis demonstrates t hat\, in solution-processed materials\, dopants including those introduced unintentionally through precursor chemistry\, are not just confined to sp ecific lattice sites. Instead\, they distribute across the microstructure\ , partitioning within grain interiors\, grain boundaries\, and segregated regions\, where they govern grain growth\, carrier concentration\, and cha rge transport. Through a systematic study of alkali metals and lead halide s in SnSe and SnS\, this work links synthesis\, defect partitioning\, micr ostructure evolution\, and thermoelectric performance reshaping how high-p erformance p- and n-type thermoelectric materials are designed. LOCATION:Sunstone Bldg / Ground floor / Big Seminar Room B (I23.EG.102) and Zoom\, ISTA ORGANIZER: SUMMARY:Christine Fiedler: Thesis Defense: Mechanistic Insight into Solutio n-Processed P-type Tin Chalcogenides as a Basis for Designing their N-type Analogs URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6530 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1785229200@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260728T110000 DTEND:20260728T120000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Miguel Cueto Noval\nhosted by Carrie Bernecky\nAbstrac t: The widespread adoption of apps like Whatsapp and Signal has translated into billions of people all around the world communicating on a regular b asis by making use of services that offer end-to-end encryption and even p rovide security guarantees when a user's device is compromised.This was ma de possible by the introduction of the Double Ratchet Algorithm\, which wa s designed for a setting where communication takes place between two parti es. However\, in practice\, many apps offer the possibility of creating gr oups. The protocols they use to secure communication are inefficient for l arge group which has the undesirable consequence that the aforementioned a pps have established limits on the group size of roughly 1000 users. This has motivated the introduction of the Messaging Layer Security (MLS) stand ard by the IETF which is based on a primitive called Continuous Group Key Agreement (CGKA).This primitive allows a group of users to maintain a shar ed secret key that is frequently rotated by the group members in order to change group membership\, achieve forward secrecy (FS) and post compromise security (PCS). Most protocols are based on binary trees where the nodes are associated to a pair formed by public key and a secret key. Each leaf corresponds to one of the group members and a user knows the secret keys a ssociated to nodes along the path from their leaf to the root. When a user wants to update their key material they have to change $ \\log(N) $ many keys. This requires uploading $ \\log(N) $ many ciphertexts to communicate the new keys to the rest of the group members in a way that respects the tree structure.In this thesis we study how much communication between grou p members is required in order to add and remove users from a group as wel l as in order to provide PCS when we consider CGKAs built using standard c ryptographic primitives like pseudo-random functions and public-key encryp tion. Furthermore\, we also consider the case of MLS and provide the first lower bound showing that its communication complexity is much worse than previously believed\, i.e.\, it is very far from $ \\log(N) $. Finally\, w e also propose a variant of MLS which provably achieves the same security properties with a much lower communication cost. LOCATION:Moonstone Bldg / Ground floor / Seminar Room F (I24.EG.030f ) and Zoom\, ISTA ORGANIZER: SUMMARY:Miguel Cueto Noval: Thesis Defense: Towards Efficient Secure Group Messaging URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6544 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1785322800@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260729T130000 DTEND:20260729T140000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Arsenii Solovev\nhosted by Pavol Harar\nAbstract: Dear colleagues\, let's talk about cryoEM/ET! Again!Registration: https://luma .com/ukgvmyza Intranet: https://intranet.ista.ac.at/content/perma?id=1903 21 It is our pleasure to invite you to the next CryoCoffee—a casual\, o ne-hour meetup (quarterly) for anyone at ISTA interested in cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM)\, cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET)\, or related top ics. Whether you work directly with these techniques\, develop computation al methods\, tackle inverse problems\, or are simply curious\, this is an opportunity to connect with others\, exchange ideas\, and find potential c ollaborations. We will be happy to welcome biologists\, mathematicians\, c omputer scientists\, physicists\, chemists\, and basically anyone interest ed in cryo. More info in the registration link.The program includes a shor t talk followed by a Mini Poster session to share fresh ideas—not finish ed projects.This is a perfect opportunity to get early feedback from colle agues. Consider signing up for the casual A4 poster\, it is a great ice br eaker that sparks fruitful discussions. LOCATION:Error Bar\, ISTA ORGANIZER:Pavol.Harar@ista.ac.at SUMMARY:Arsenii Solovev: 6th CryoCoffee on 29th July 1PM in ErrorBar URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6557 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1785740400@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260803T090000 DTEND:20260807T140000 DESCRIPTION: LOCATION:Moonstone Seminar Center\, ISTA ORGANIZER:eurowd-2026@ista.ac.at SUMMARY:24th European Workshop on White Dwarfs URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6292 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1785744000@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260803T100000 DTEND:20260803T110000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Felix Pertl\nhosted by Georgios Katsaros\nAbstract: Co ntact electrification (CE) is a simple yet elusive phenomenon that occurs when two materials come into contact and separate\, leaving behind net ele ctrical charge. Despite its ubiquity\, the microscopic origin of CE remain s unclear. In this thesis\, we investigate CE from three complementary per spectives: developing a quantitative method to measure charge at the nanos cale\, exploring the dynamic behavior of charge on insulating surfaces\, a nd uncovering the role of mechanical history in forming a triboelectric se ries.In the first part\, we establish a rigorous framework for converting qualitative Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) voltage maps into quantit ative charge density distributions. Using finite element method (FEM) simu lations\, we determine the point-spread function of the KPFM tip–sample geometry and demonstrate that the true surface charge can be reconstructed by numerical deconvolution. This procedure enables the recovery of both t he magnitude and sign of charge density with high fidelity\, resolving nan oscale features that are otherwise obscured. Applying the method to contac t-charged SiO$_2$ surfaces\, we show that existing analytical approximatio ns\, such as parallel plate or spherical models\, can miscalculate charge magnitude by orders of magnitude. Our hybrid FEM/KPFM approach therefore p rovides a fast and general method to convert qualitative KPFM signals into quantitative charge data\, enabling nanoscale charge mapping under realis tic experimental conditions.In the second part\, we study the temporal sta bility of CE-induced charges and identify the key material factors that de termine whether KPFM can capture meaningful charge patterns. Through time- resolved experiments combining a custom-built transfer system with both mi croscopic and macroscopic measurements\, we demonstrate that only the best insulators\, such as SiO$_2$\, preserve CE charge long enough for station ary imaging. For less conductive polymers\, such as PDMS\, charge decays w ithin the duration of a single KPFM scan due to bulk conduction. Using a s imple capacitor-based model\, we reproduce the observed decay dynamics and confirm that the transferred charge decays characteristic to the sample's bulk conductivity. Further\, we always observe homogeneous charge transfe r.In the third part\, we address the question: can we form a triboelectric series with identical materials? Using controlled repetitive contact expe riments\, we show that nominally identical materials can progressively ord er themselves into a triboelectric series\, where surfaces with more conta ct history charge negatively relative to fresher ones. By constructing a m inimal model based on this contact bias''\, we replicate the evolution fro m random to ordered charging observed in experiments. Supporting surface a nalyses\, including atomic force microscopy\, reveal that repeated contact induces nanoscale morphological changes\, suggesting a mechanism tightly coupled to mechanical strain. These results highlight the crucial role of surface history and nanoscale mechanics in dictating charge transfer\, mot ivating further exploration of mechanisms such as mechanochemical bond cle avage and flexoelectric polarization. LOCATION:Sunstone Bldg / Ground floor / Big Seminar Room B (I23.EG.102)\, I STA ORGANIZER: SUMMARY:Felix Pertl: Thesis Defense: Experimental probing of nanoscale char ge features and surface morphology changes during tribocharging URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6537 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1785744000@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260803T100000 DTEND:20260803T110000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Marek Randuch\nhosted by Michael Sixt\nAbstract: Root growth inhibition (RG) by auxin and other cues (e.g. eATP\, RALF peptide) involves rapid\, non-transcriptional pathways. Specific steps leading to g rowth inhibition are unclear. Notably\, the RG inhibition is associated wi th increases in cytosolic Ca2+\, plasma membrane depolarization and apopla st alkalization. However\, the causal relationship between them is unclear . To untangle these processes\, we utilized multiplexed reporter imaging to observe pairwise the real-time dynamics of these three processes. Furth ermore\, we tested causal relationships. We employed microfluidics for rap id medium exchange and leveraged new optogenetically regulated channels.  Our comprehensive approach uncovered a network with tight feedback loops. Results indicate that cytosolic Ca2+ serves as the universal initial signa l\, triggering both plasma membrane depolarization and subsequent apoplast alkalization following auxin perception. his conclusion provides a basis for the fundamental regulatory mechanism governing growth but also opens q uestions about the molecular mechanisms behind it. LOCATION:Office Bldg West / Ground floor / Heinzel Seminar Room (I21.EG.101 ) and Zoom\, ISTA ORGANIZER: SUMMARY:Marek Randuch: Thesis Defense: Fast growth responses in plants: Pho spho‐proteomic and growth regulation URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6553 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:6a621a7000aa7530372093@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260805T110000 DTEND:20260805T120000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Christina Henzinger\nhosted by Hryhoriy Polshyn\nAbstr act: Exchange statistics are a fundamental principle of quantum mechanics\ , dictating the symmetry of identical particle wavefunctions. The exchange -induced unitary transformation of anyonic wavefunctions can be probed usi ng electronic fractional quantum Hall (FQH) interferometers\, where quasip articles on the interfering FQH edge braid with those localized within the cavity. Here\, we add a gate-controlled dot/anti-dot in the center of a b ilayer graphene FQH interferometer to tune the number of enclosed anyons. We observe hundreds of controlled phase slips in the conductance across th e interferometer for both abelian and non-abelian states\, consistent with discrete changes in the localized quasiparticle population. For abelian a nyons\, the observed phase slips agree with the theoretically expected val ue. At half filling\, our results suggest the interfering edge carries cha rge |e/e| = 1/2 abelian excitations\, whereas charge |e/e| = 1/4 putative non-abelian anyons remain localized in the interferometer cavity. Controll ing the population of localized e/4 anyons in an interferometer marks a si gnificant milestone towards observing their non-local exchange statistics and building a fault tolerant topological qubit based on non-abelian anyon manipulation. LOCATION:Office Bldg West / Ground floor / Heinzel Seminar Room (I21.EG.101 )\, ISTA ORGANIZER:hpolshyn@ist.ac.at SUMMARY:Christina Henzinger: Controlled localization of anyons in a graphen e quantum Hall interferometer URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6571 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1785934800@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260805T150000 DTEND:20260805T160000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Silvia Jamrichova\nhosted by Maria Ibáñez\nAbstract: A fundamental question in neuroscience is how the biophysical properties of synapses shape higher network computations. The mossy fiber synapse is a key synapse of the trisynaptic circuit of the hippocampus\, a brain regi on central to the encoding and retrieval of declarative memory. Its unique size\, large vesicle pool\, wide range of plasticity\, striking "detonato r" properties\, and involvement in several higher-order computations\, nam ely pattern separation and pattern completion\, make it an ideal model for studying synaptic mechanisms with direct relevance to memory and its impa irments.Despite extensive study over the years\, however\, key questions r emain unresolved: the molecular identity of the Ca² sensors driving its d istinct modes of release and plasticity\, and whether its fundamental prop erties are preserved in the human brain.Thanks to newly generated transgen ic mice and a method of direct presynaptic patch-clamp recordings from mos sy fiber boutons\, we used a combination of electrophysiological\, imaging and behavioral methods to investigate the role of synaptotagmins in timin g of transmission and plasticity at this synapse.We found that Syt1 is the primary Ca² sensor for synchronous release\, with a major trigger and mi nor clamping function of neurotransmitter release. Syt1 deletion led to an increase in asynchronous release converting the teacher synapse from a te mporally precise conditional detonator to an asynchronous one. Moreover\, at the behavioral level\, desynchronized release selectively impaired patt ern completion\, while pattern separation remained intact\, demonstrating that disruption of its precise timing and strength leads to selective impa irments in behaviorally relevant hippocampal computations in mice. Interes tingly\, our data did not support a proposed role for Syt7 in either async hronous release\, or facilitation or pool refilling\, leaving its function at this synapse enigmatic.Furthermore\, utilizing non-sclerotic tissue ob tained from temporal lobe epilepsy patients undergoing brain surgery\, we discovered several notable species differences: human mossy fiber boutons display larger vesicle pools and amplitude responses\, and — strikingly — exhibit full detonator properties in CA3. Furthermore\, mossy fiber sy napses targeting CA4 neurons lack such properties\, suggesting a distinct functional role at this projection.Together\, the findings presented in th is thesis shed light on the molecular mechanisms underlying information pr ocessing at the hippocampal mossy fiber synapse\, with implications for ou r understanding of memory\, and reveal both conserved and distinct synapti c properties between mice and humans\, suggesting that human mossy fibers are not a simple scaled version of their rodent counterpart. LOCATION:Central Bldg / O1 / Lecture Hall (I02.O1.014) and Zoom\, ISTA ORGANIZER: SUMMARY:Silvia Jamrichova: Thesis Defense: Timing and strength of synaptic transmission at hippocampal mossy fiber synapses in mice and humans URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6570 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1786021200@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260806T150000 DTEND:20260806T160000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Peipeng Lin\nhosted by Charles Roques-Carmes\nAbstract : The hippocampal mossy fiber (MF) to CA3 pyramidal neuron synapse plays a key role in hippocampal information processing\, acting as a teacher syna pse that can conditionally drive postsynaptic firing and instruct informat ion storage in the downstream CA3 network. How the detonation properties o f this synapse are kept in check remains unclear. Our study demonstrates t hat CA3 stratum lucidum interneurons inhibit MF synaptic transmission via presynaptic GABAB receptors. Pharmacological activation of these receptors by baclofen markedly reduced MF synaptic transmission\, switching the syn apse from a reliable conditional detonator into a coincidence-detecting su bdetonator. We identified a dual mechanism underlying this presynaptic inh ibition: a reduction in Ca² influx and\, more substantially\, a decrease in the readily releasable pool of synaptic vesicles. Synaptically released GABA\, evoked by optogenetic stimulation of stratum lucidum interneurons at in vivo-like frequencies\, produced comparable effects and further inte rfered with the stability of the short-term plasticity-associated vesicle pool engram\, pointing to a physiological role for presynaptic inhibition. Expansion microscopy showed that interneuron terminals are positioned in close proximity to MF boutons\, providing a structural basis for GABA spil lover onto presynaptic receptors. Together\, our findings reveal how inter neuron activity calibrates synaptic efficacy and plasticity at MF synapses through presynaptic inhibition\, with implications for memory encoding in the hippocampal trisynaptic circuit. LOCATION:Central Bldg / O1 / Lecture Hall (I02.O1.014) and Zoom\, ISTA ORGANIZER: SUMMARY:Peipeng Lin: Thesis Defense: Calibrating the Teacher Synapse: Mec hanisms and Functional Significance of Presynaptic Inhibition at Hippocamp al Mossy Fiber Synapses URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6569 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1786546800@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260812T170000 DTEND:20260812T230000 DESCRIPTION:Abstract: On 12 August\, the VISTA Science Experience Center in vites you to From Eclipse to Starlight\, a cosmic summer evening at the I STA campus in Klosterneuburg.Starting at 6:00 pm\, visitors can enjoy a va ried program combining science and music. The ISTA Astro Club opens the ev ening with an interactive astronomy talk and quiz. Afterwards\, the total solar eclipse will be shown live on the big screen through a broadcast pro vided by the European Space Agency. At 8:30 pm\, Viennese singer songwrite r Oskar Haag takes the stage\, while FM4 DJ Phekt provides the musical bac kdrop throughout the evening. After dark\, visitors can join the ISTA Astr o Club to observe the Perseid meteor shower.Until 8:00 pm\, guests can als o visit the Science in the Making exhibition or watch Encounters in the Milky Way. Street food and drinks complete the festival atmosphere. LOCATION:VISTA Science Experience Center\, Klosterneuburg\, ISTA ORGANIZER: SUMMARY:From Eclipse to Starlight URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6565 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1786606200@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260813T093000 DTEND:20260813T103000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Manjunath Javoor\nhosted by Rafal Klajn\nAbstract: Cel l motility depends on the protrusive force generated by the actin cytoskel eton at the leading edge of cells. In lamellipodia\, thin protrusions at t he front of migrating cells\, actin forms higher-order networks with versa tile physical properties. Previous studies have hinted at the presence of different sub-populations of filaments and their spatial organization with in actin filament networks at the leading edge of migrating cells. Due to limitations of existing experimental methods\, it has not been possible to fully describe the complexity of the actin filament populations involved in protrusions at the leading edge.Cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) has been used to describe the actin networks in cellular protrusions at single filament resolution in 3D. However\, these descriptions have been limited to 1-2 μm2 area of the protrusions\, providing merely snapshots of much larger assemblies that span serval tens to hundreds of square microns area . Consequently\, they have not provided a holistic overview of the existin g variability within actin networks. We therefore lack a comprehensive und erstanding of how actin network geometries orchestrate cell migration.To a ddress these challenges\, I developed a montage cryo-electron tomography w orkflow to obtain three-dimensional views of lamellipodial regions coverin g areas of up to 100 μm2 at single-filament resolution. Seamless three-di mensional tomogram stitching is achieved by combining neural-network-based denoising strategies with novel optical-flow-based algorithms\, thereby p reserving filament continuity across large reconstructed volumes. Our comp utational analysis pipeline enabled us to vectorize all filaments within t hese volumes\, including filaments reaching lengths of up to 4 μm. The da ta generated here represent a valuable resource for the actin community\, as they provide one of the most detailed and extensive three-dimensional d escriptions of actin filament architecture in the lamellipodium. Specifica lly\, they reveal accurate F-actin concentrations\, filament length distri butions\, connectivity\, and the spatial organization of filament sub-popu lations. These datasets can be used to support and constrain biophysical a nd theoretical models of actin network organization\, dynamics\, and force generation. LOCATION:Sunstone Bldg / Ground floor / Big Seminar Room B / 63 seats (I23. EG.102) and Zoom\, ISTA ORGANIZER: SUMMARY:Manjunath Javoor: Thesis Defense: Large-scale imaging of cellular a ctin networks at single-filament resolution using montage cryo-electron to mography URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6576 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1786623300@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260813T141500 DTEND:20260813T151500 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Vicente Luis Diaz Melian\nhosted by Kimberly Modic \nA bstract: When a Leidenfrost droplet floats on its own vapor layer\, the in terplay between vapor pressure\, surface tension\, and gravity determines its shape\, and in the stable regime the underside of the droplet exhibits curvature inversion. Using interferometric imaging\, we observe a differe nt behavior for a levitated hydrogel sphere. Curvature inversion appears b riefly after deposition\, but the continuous vaporization process removes this feature\, leading first to an oscillatory regime and eventually to a steady state without curvature inversion. We demonstrate the essential rol e of vaporization in shaping the hydrogel underbelly\, where direct mass l oss has a stronger influence than the balance between vapor pressure and e lastic forces. LOCATION:Central Bldg / O1 / Lecture Hall (I02.O1.014) and Zoom\, ISTA ORGANIZER: SUMMARY:Vicente Luis Diaz Melian: Thesis Defense: The morphology underneath a levitated hydrogel sphere URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6561 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1786975200@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260817T160000 DTEND:20260817T170000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Kevin Kögler\nhosted by Krzysztof Pietrzak\nAbstract: Modern datasets often contain as many variables as observations\, or many more\, making classical statistical tools difficult to apply and standard machine-learning models hard to understand. To address this problem\, thi s thesis develops methods for inference and compression in this high-dimen sional regime\, centered on approximate message passing (AMP)\, a family o f iterative inference algorithms which are conjecture to be optimal for ma ny of these problems.First\, we introduce rotationally invariant generaliz ed AMP (RI-GAMP)\, extending AMP beyond independent Gaussian design matric es to a broad class of matrices with complex correlations and arbitrary li miting spectra. We characterize its performance rigorously through state e volution and show that it approaches the performance of Vector AMP while a voiding its computationally expensive singular-value decomposition.We then study nonlinear autoencoders when the input and compressed dimensions gro w proportionally. For Gaussian data\, we derive fundamental limits for one -bit compression by shallow two-layer autoencoders\, characterize their op timal solutions\, and prove that gradient methods reach them. For structur ed data\, however\, a shallow linear decoder may ignore information such a s sparsity and behave exactly as it does for Gaussian inputs. Adding nonli nearities or depth overcomes this limitation: deeper decoders can learn co mputations closely related to AMP and approach optimal reconstruction for a fixed encoder.Finally\, we apply these ideas to predict plasma-protein a bundance from UK Biobank individual-level genetic data\, using approximate ly 8.4 million genetic variants from roughly 40\,000 individuals. A two-st age genetic Vector AMP pipeline first selects a small set of predictive ge nomic regions and then fits more detailed linear or tree-based models. Com bined with a one-hot representation of the genotype data\, this procedure closes the previously reported average gap between linear and deep-learnin g prediction and improves prediction for many proteins in a proteome-wide comparison.  LOCATION:Office Bldg West / Ground floor / Heinzel Seminar Room (I21.EG.101 ) and Zoom\, ISTA ORGANIZER: SUMMARY:Kevin Kögler: Thesis Defense: Compression and Inference in High Di mensions: An Approximate Message Passing Perspective URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6577 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1788267600@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260901T150000 DTEND:20260901T160000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Jonas Ingmanns\nhosted by Monika Henzinger\nAbstract: Precise microscopic models of physical processes are often too complex to be useful for understanding or simulating phenomena on a macroscopic scale . The complexity can be drastically reduced if there is a suitable approxi mation which still accurately captures the effective large-scale behavior of the underlying model. This thesis contains contributions to the rigorou s justification of such large-scale approximations  or three different mo dels. Chapter 2 presents joint work with Federico Cornalba\, Julian Fisch er\, and Claudia Raithel. We consider a large system of weakly interacting particles\, driven by independent Brownian motions. The physicists Dean a nd Kawasaki proposed a strongly singular SPDE to describe fluctuations of the particle density. However\, without a suitable regularization\, the De an–Kawasaki equation has been shown to be ill-posed in the sense that it does not admit martingale solutions for any continuous initial data. We s how that a structure-preserving discretization of the Dean–Kawasaki equa tion – acting as a suitable regularization – captures the density fluc tuations of the particle system up to arbitrary order in the inverse numbe r of particles and a discretization error. Chapter 3 presents joint work with Elisa Davoli and Lorenza D’Elia. We consider a magnetic body consis ting of a composite material with a random microstructure. The oscillating magnetic properties are encoded in the micromagnetic energy functional wh ich is restricted to functions taking values on the sphere\, governing the observable states of magnetization. We obtain a qualitative stochastic ho mogenization result in the form of Γ-convergence. The Γ-limit is a micro magnetic energy functional with constant\, deterministic coefficients\, me aning that the magnetic body can be treated as if consisting of a single m aterial when the microstructure is small enough. On a technical level\, we obtain an analogous result replacing the sphere with other sufficiently re gular manifolds.Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 present joint work with Julian Fis cher. We consider interface motions driven by curvature and a uniform forc ing through a stationary field of possibly impenetrable random obstacles s atisfying a finite range of dependence assumption. This process models\, e .g.\, the motion of dislocation lines or magnetic domain boundaries in mat erials with inhibiting impurities. In Chapter 5\, for dimension = 2\, we introduce an easy-to-check criterion for general obstacle fields which imp lies ballistic behavior. More precisely\, this criterion yields an almost guaranteed effective minimum speed on large scales for the interface motio n \, with ‘effective’ meaning that enclosures left behind a main front can be ignored. In Chapter 4\, for any dimension ≥ 2\, assuming such a n almost guaranteed effective minimum speed\, we obtain a quantitative sto chastic homogenization result in any dimension\, proving that the main fro nt can be approximated with a constant-speed motion on large scales. LOCATION:Office Bldg West / Ground floor / Heinzel Seminar Room (I21.EG.101 ) and Zoom\, ISTA ORGANIZER: SUMMARY:Jonas Ingmanns: Thesis Defense: On the large-scale behavior of inte racting particle systems\, composite magnetic materials\, and interface mo tions through random obstacle fields URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6560 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:6a6718ef86935830306549@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260903T134500 DTEND:20260903T150000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Eduardo Fernández Ortuño\nhosted by Lora Sweeney \nAbstract: The phenomenal size and cellular diversity of the human cerebr al cortex is the outcome of an elaborate developmental program sculpted by evolutionary forces during millions of years. This evolution involved cha nges in neural progenitor cells\, which compared to reptiles and birds acq uired the capacity to generate larger numbers of neurons and in greater di versity. Genetic causes of increased progenitor cell proliferation during evolution have been identified\, but mechanisms involved in the diversific ation of neural progenitor cells remain unknown. To address this question\ , we performed the first integrated\, multi-level\, comparative study of n eural progenitor cells and lineages in the embryonic cortex across amniote s. The analysis was focused on four strategic species that cover the spect rum of cortical phenotypes: house snake\, chick\, mouse and ferret. Our re sults revealed an unsuspected diversity of basal progenitor cell types in chick\, superior to mouse and with similarities to the more complex ferret cortex. Chick dorsal pallial progenitors included subapical and basal Rad ial Glia\, and co-expressed Pax6 and Tbr2\, similar to ferret but unlike m ouse\, where these are largely absent. Our findings challenge current conc epts on the evolutionary trajectory of the cerebral cortex\, revealing a v ery early diversification of cortical progenitor cell types in amniotes th at predated the last common ancestor of mammals and birds. LOCATION:Sunstone Bldg / Ground floor / Big Seminar Room B / 63 seats (I23. EG.102)\, ISTA ORGANIZER:jgazsi@ist.ac.at SUMMARY:Eduardo Fernández Ortuño: Don't Put All Your Eggs in the Neoc ortex: How the small chick dorsal pallium challenges mammalian-centric vie ws on brain cortex evolution URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6573 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1788951600@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260909T130000 DTEND:20260909T140000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Andrea Stöllner\nhosted by Jorryt Matthee\nAbstract: Charge accumulation on aerosol particles plays an important role in a vari ety of natural and industrial processes. An example is cloud electrificati on\, in which collisions between ice crystals and graupel cause large amou nts of charge to be exchanged between airborne particles. Optical tweezers are a highly specialized tool that can hold a single micrometer-sized air borne particle stably in the same position over weeks while measuring its electric charge with elementary-charge resolution. In this work\, we show that the trapping laser can also be used to give charge to the micropartic le. Via a two-photon process the particle acquires more and more positive charge\, enabling us to study its electrical behavior from uncharged up to multiple hundred elementary charges. By studying the dynamics of such hig hly charged particles over days and weeks we find that they spontaneously undergo microdischarges which range from just a few to several hundred ele mentary charges. We show that these discharges are triggered by cosmic-ray muons which pass through the air close to the particle and supply the ion s needed to cause charge loss. Our findings highlight the potential of aer osol optical tweezers to provide new insights into microscale charging and discharging phenomena\, with implications for both fundamental studies an d atmospheric electrification processes. LOCATION:Central Bldg / O1 / Mondi 3 (I01.O1.010)\, ISTA ORGANIZER: SUMMARY:Andrea Stöllner: Thesis Defense: Microscale Electrical Behavior of Highly Charged Individual Aerosol Particles Using Optical Tweezers URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6572 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1789983000@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260921T113000 DTEND:20260921T123000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Lena Schwarz & Jiawei Bao LOCATION:ISTA | Central Building | Raiffeisen Lecture Hall\, ISTA ORGANIZER:diana.zubcevic@ista.ac.at SUMMARY:Lena Schwarz & Jiawei Bao: ISTA PostDoc Award URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6386 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:6a1e9cbf72e58407814214@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260922T161500 DTEND:20260922T171500 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Domenico Cafiero\nhosted by Robert Seiringer\nAbstract : Anyons are 2d identical quantum particles with an intermediate exchange symmetry characterized by representations of the braid group. In the abeli an case\, they can be modelled through the so-called magnetic representati on\, namely as a system of bosons with an Aharonov-Bohm flux attached to e ach particle.In this talk\, I will discuss the construction of self-adjoin t Hamiltonians\, different from the Friedrichs realization\, for a system of three abelian anyons. I will focus in particular on the Ter-Martirosyan -Skornyakov extensions. This family of Hamiltonians turns out to be parame trized by a suitable boundary operator\; I will present a complete classif ication of its self-adjoint realizations and compute the negative spectrum for the specific case of interest. These results shed light on the possib le occurrence of Thomas instability in the three-anyon model. Joint work w ith Michele Correggi (PoliMi) and Davide Fermi (PoliMi). LOCATION:Office Bldg West / Ground floor / Heinzel Seminar Room (I21.EG.101 )\, ISTA ORGANIZER:boosthui@ist.ac.at SUMMARY:Domenico Cafiero: On the three-body Hamiltonian for abelian anyons URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6566 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1790089200@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260922T170000 DTEND:20260922T180000 DESCRIPTION: LOCATION:Dr. Ignaz Seipel-Platz 2\, 1010 Vienna\, Austria\, ISTA ORGANIZER: SUMMARY:ÖAW-ISTA Lecture Prof. Klaus Robert Müller URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6288 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1790341200@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260925T150000 DTEND:20260925T180000 DESCRIPTION:hosted by ISTA\nAbstract: Join a lively peertopeer event design ed for postdocs navigating the job search.Share practical tips\, vent comm on frustrations\, celebrate successes\, and exchange honest advice — all in a relaxed speednetworking format that reminds you: you’re not alone in this process!Food\, fun\, facilitation\, and meaningful connections inc luded.The Maria Gugging hills are waiting for you! LOCATION:Moonstone Seminar Room F+G\, ISTA ORGANIZER:boris.cesnik@ista.ac.at SUMMARY:PAW Closure Networking Event URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6495 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1790587800@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20260928T113000 DTEND:20260928T123000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Francesco Locatello\nhosted by Christoph Lampert LOCATION:Raiffeisen Lecture Hall\, ISTA ORGANIZER:diana.zubcevic@ista.ac.at SUMMARY:Francesco Locatello: Tenure Talk | Francesco Locatello URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6548 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1791192600@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20261005T113000 DTEND:20261005T123000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Friedrich Stricker & Yuval Wigderson\nhosted by Mikhai l Lemeshko LOCATION:ISTA | Central Building | Raiffeisen Lecture Hall\, ISTA ORGANIZER:diana.zubcevic@ista.ac.at SUMMARY:Friedrich Stricker & Yuval Wigderson: Inaugural Lecture | Friedrich Stricker & Yuval Wigderson URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6357 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1794220200@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20261109T113000 DTEND:20261109T123000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Lauren O'Connell\nhosted by Lora Sweeney LOCATION:Raiffeisen Lecture Hall\, ISTA ORGANIZER:diana.zubcevic@ista.ac.at SUMMARY:Lauren O'Connell: Institute Colloquium | Lauren O'Connell URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6550 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1794825000@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20261116T113000 DTEND:20261116T123000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Vivian Kuperberg & Carla Fernandez-Rico\nhosted by Mik hail Lemeshko LOCATION:ISTA | Central Building | Raiffeisen Lecture Hall\, ISTA ORGANIZER:diana.zubcevic@ista.ac.at SUMMARY:Vivian Kuperberg & Carla Fernandez-Rico: Inaugural Lecture | Vivian Kuperberg & Carla Fernandez-Rico URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6389 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1795429800@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20261123T113000 DTEND:20261123T123000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Kim Modic\nhosted by Mikhail Lemeshko LOCATION:ISTA | Central Building | Raiffeisen Lecture Hall\, ISTA ORGANIZER:diana.zubcevic@ista.ac.at SUMMARY:Kim Modic: Tenure Talk | Kim Modic URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6390 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1796639400@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20261207T113000 DTEND:20261207T123000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Daniel Robert\nhosted by Scott Waitukaitis LOCATION:Raiffeisen Lecture Hall\, ISTA ORGANIZER:diana.zubcevic@ista.ac.at SUMMARY:Daniel Robert: Institute Colloquium | Daniel Robert URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6551 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1797244200@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20261214T113000 DTEND:20261214T123000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Monika Visan & Simone Fatichi LOCATION:Raiffeisen Lecture Hall\, ISTA ORGANIZER:diana.zubcevic@ista.ac.at SUMMARY:Monika Visan & Simone Fatichi: Inaugural Lecture | Monika Visan & S imone Fatichi URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6552 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260805T004717Z UID:1800268200@ist.ac.at DTSTART:20270118T113000 DTEND:20270118T123000 DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Lora Sweeney\nhosted by Mario de Bono LOCATION:ISTA | Central Building | Raiffeisen Lecture Hall\, ISTA ORGANIZER:diana.zubcevic@ista.ac.at SUMMARY:Lora Sweeney: Tenure Talk | Lora Sweeney URL:https://talks-calendar.ista.ac.at/events/6387 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR