Laura Alvarez

Laura Alvarez is a Junior Chair (Tenure Track) at the University of Bordeaux since 2022, conducting research at the Paul Pascal Research Center (CRPP), a joint CNRS-University of Bordeaux unit. Her office is located at B-224, 115 Avenue du Dr Albert Schweitzer, 33600 Pessac, France, with contact via (+33) 05 56 84 30 27 or laura.alvarez-frances@u-bordeaux.fr. She leads the BIO 2.0 team's research on active matter and colloidal systems.

Her educational trajectory includes:

• PhD at University of Bordeaux and KU Leuven (2013-2016) under Prof. MP Lettinga and Dr. Eric Grelet
• Postdoctoral research at ETH Zurich (2017-2021) with Prof. Lucio Isa
• SNSF Spark postdoctoral fellowship (2020-2021)

Her research centers on Active Matter, Chemical Communication, and Bio-inspired microsystems, investigating active liposome design, colloidal-lipid membrane interactions, and collective colloidal behavior. Key methodologies include optical tweezers and microfluidics for studying enzymatic particle navigation and colloidal lattice assembly.

Her publication record (2017-2023) reveals a strong focus on programmable active colloids and microfluidic applications, with significant contributions to artificial microswimmers and reconfigurable systems appearing in Nature Communications, PNAS, and Physical Review Letters. Emerging trends show increasing emphasis on biomedical applications of active matter.

Key recognitions include:

• Spark postdoctoral grant (SNSF, 2020)
• IdEx PhD fellowship (2013)

She secured major grants including ANR JCJ Project MYMESYS (2023) and France-Berkeley Fund (2023), while her mentoring role involves graduate student supervision through University of Bordeaux's tenure-track framework.

As BIO 2.0 team lead at CRPP, she directs experimental work on active colloidal particles using microfluidic platforms and optical manipulation, maintaining active collaborations with ETH Zurich, University of Bordeaux, and international partners across Europe.