Mehran Kardar

Mehran Kardar is the Francis Friedman Professor of Physics at MIT, affiliated with the School of Science. He specializes in statistical physics, with research focusing on non-equilibrium collective behavior, disordered systems, soft matter, fluctuation-induced phenomena, and biophysics. His work bridges theoretical physics with biological systems, particularly in genome organization and immune response dynamics.

Education: BA from Cambridge University (1979), PhD in Physics from MIT (1983). Postdoctoral roles included Harvard Society of Fellows Junior Fellowship (1983-1986) and Miller Visiting Professorship at UC Berkeley (2001). Teaching accolades include the MIT School of Science Teaching Prize and the John David Jackson Excellence in Graduate Physics Education Award (2018).

Research Interests: His studies span active matter, bacterial range expansions, Casimir forces, and transcriptional condensates. Notable contributions include the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equation for surface growth dynamics and models of genome organization via active folding.

Awards/Honors: Elected to the National Academy of Sciences (2018), American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2009), and recipient of Guggenheim (2001), Sloan (1987), and Humboldt (2020) Fellowships. Recognized with the Ellis Island Medal of Honor (2019) and multiple teaching awards.

Grants/Labs: Leads the Kardar Group at MIT, with affiliations to the Physics of Living Systems and Condensed Matter Theory Group. Research spans interdisciplinary topics including viral immunology, soft matter physics, and quantum fluctuation phenomena.