Robert H. Austin

Robert H. Austin is a Professor of Physics at Princeton University and leads the Robert H. Austin Research Group in Biophysics. His research spans biophysics, cancer physics, and evolutionary biology, focusing on bacterial collective intelligence, robotic swarms, and physical oncology. He employs microfluidics and nanotechnology to study cellular dynamics under stress and has pioneered platforms like the death galaxy and evolutionary accelerator for cancer research.

His work includes theoretical and experimental studies on bacterial escape mechanisms in non-trivial topologies, cancer cell population dynamics in heterogeneous environments, and emergent behaviors in autonomous robot swarms. He has contributed to understanding antibiotic resistance, tumor hypoxia, and the role of microhabitat arrays in evolutionary development.

• Edgar Lilienfeld Prize (2005)
• Max Delbrück Prize (2014)
• Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS)
• Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
• Member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

His group’s research bridges physics, biology, and medicine, with applications in biofuel production, cancer therapy, and synthetic ecosystems. He also serves on review panels for NIH, NSF, NIST, and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund.