معرفی
Roman Stocker is a Full Professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering at ETH Zurich, where he leads an interdisciplinary research group combining engineering, physics, biology, and mathematics. His laboratory develops cutting-edge microfluidic and imaging technologies to study microbial processes in aquatic environments at the single-cell level.
His research spans Microbial Ecology, Ecohydraulics, Biofilms, and Phytoplankton-Bacteria Symbiosis, with emphasis on how microscale processes drive ocean-scale biogeochemical cycles. Key methodologies include microfluidics, video microscopy, and mathematical modeling to investigate bacterial motility, chemotaxis, and environmental responses.
His recent publications reveal fundamental mechanisms like shear-induced bacterial conjugation hotspots (PNAS 2025) and starvation motility trade-offs (Nature Microbiology 2025), demonstrating how physical forces shape microbial behavior. His work consistently bridges laboratory observations with environmental-scale implications.
Major awards include:
- Symbiosis in Aquatic Systems Initiative Investigator Award (Moore Foundation)
- Simons Collaboration on Microbial Ecosystems
- Golden Owl Teaching Award (ETH Zurich)
- Milton Van Dyke Award (American Physical Society)
Stocker teaches Hydraulics I and Ecohydraulics courses while leading field deployments worldwide. His lab comprises specialized teams including the Ecohydraulics Group (led by Luiz G.M. Silva) and bioMatter Microfluidics Unit (led by Eleonora Secchi), supported by SNSF, GBMF, and NCCR Microbiome grants. Current projects focus on coral microbiome dynamics, soil-water interfaces, and fish passage engineering.
