May 21, 2025
Prof. Vincenzo Vitelli of the Department of Physics and James Franck Institute was recently named a Fellow-Ambassador at the CNRS. An internationally renowned theorical physicist, Vitelli was recognized for his defining contributions to the fields of statistical physics, soft matter, and active matter.
Among this year’s nine Fellow-Ambassadors are 2020 Nobel Prize laureate Emmanuelle Charpentier and Sandra Díaz, the 2025 recipient of the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement.
“I am very honored and grateful for this opportunity to act as a bridge with CNRS colleagues from whom I have learned a lot and facilitate the exchange of postdoctoral scholars and PhD students between UChicago and French labs," said Vitelli.
The Faculty-Ambassador program was initiated in 2023 to honor internationally renowned scholars from around the world. Recipients spend one month in France over each of the three years of their appointment. Past Fellow-Ambassadors include Nobel laureates Ardem Patapounian and Saul Perlmutter. In its press release, the CNRS noted Vitelli’s achievements in the study of nonreciprocal systems, innovative materials, and his recent work on the nonlinear dynamics of biological systems.
Vitelli is also an Investigator with UChicago’s Center for Living Systems (CLS), which, under the leadership of Margaret Gardel, has had long-standing and robust collaborations with researchers at the CNRS. CLS affiliates include CNRS researchers Thierry Mora, Aleksandra Walczak, Patrick Lemaire, and Thomas Lecuit while its faculty includes past PhD Joint Program recipients Stephanie Palmer, Arvind Murugan, Peter Littlewood, and Jasmine Nirody.
Republished article written by Sylvia Alajaji, first appearing in the CNRS-UChicago IRC Discovery newsletter.