Interdisciplinary challenges in non-equilibrium physics: from soft to active, biological and complex matter

1. The main focus of the conference

The IntCha workshop brought together novel ideas and expertise from various fields to address
complex physical systems in an interdisciplinary manner, bridging the gaps between
out-of-equilibrium physics and traditional soft matter, between theory and experiments, between
simplified models and the intricacies of biological systems. Out-of-equilibrium physics in general
aims at understanding a large variety of phenomena in systems that break time reversibility.
This field is becoming more and more intertwined with different areas of Science thanks to its
general nature and due to the ubiquity of non-equilibrium processes in biology, chemistry, and
material science. This poses challenges and opportunities outside the traditional realms of
Physics. In addition, as our experimental and theoretical tools improve, more and more
complicated systems can now be effectively tackled. In the IntCha workshop, participants
discussed how we can effectively bridge different fields to tackle interdisciplinary problems, how
we deal with this complexity and how we train the next generation of scientists to cope with the
increasingly interdisciplinary fields. The workshop offered an environment where young
researchers with different, but connected, backgrounds exchanged their knowledge across
different disciplines, at the boundary between different fields. Throughout five days, several talks
from early career researchers, poster sessions, and Q&A sessions sparked discussions among
participants, offered new interdisciplinary collaborations, and promoted the exchange of
experiences and ideas.

2. The most important participants

Given the impressive contributions of 33 invited speakers and 50 poster presenters, it is
challenging to emphasize individual contributions. The participants were very proactive and
created a lively conference with energetic poster sessions and asked many questions after the
talks. We would like to emphasise the scientific, geographical, and gender diversity of the
participants. Among the participants, two thirds worked in theory and simulations and a third in
experiments. Moreover, about 40% were female and about 60% male. The conference had
participation from the EU, the USA, the UK, India, Philippines, Armenia, Japan, Republic of
Korea, South Africa, China, Pakistan and Brazil. We would like to highlight the opening
colloquium of Eleonora Secchi on bacterial biofilms which provided an outstanding example of
the interplay between physics, biology, and material science. Another interesting contribution
was the one of Agnese Curatolo and Elena Sesé-Sansa, editors at the American Physical
Society. The editors gave a very useful overview of the scientific publishing process in general
and at Physical Review Letter, Physical Review E and Physical Review X Life, three journals
very important for the field of the conference. Their talk stimulated a participated discussion
among the young researchers that continued during the Q&A session and lunches with the
editors.

3. How did scientific newcomers present themselves?

Aimed at early career researchers, IntCha24 offered scientific newcomers many ways of
presenting themselves. Among the 33 speakers, three-quarters were postdoctoral researchers
who presented on diverse fields of interdisciplinary work. One-fifth of the speakers were PhD
students. Among the 110 participants, 50 scientific newcomers presented posters in the two
poster sessions, including poster award-winning presentations by PhD candidate Y. Sarmiento
on the interdisciplinary topic of human perceptual decision-making of non-equilibrium
fluctuations, master student L. Schick on experiments of the decision-making process in
light-trapped slime moulds, and PhD candidate F. de Luca on hyperuniformity in phase ordering.
For the participants, IntCha24 has broadened the horizons of scientific newcomers. Among the
22 participants who have completed the feedback survey, 18 have gained unexpected interest in
information in biology, while half have gained interest in topics such as cells and tissues,
microorganisms, micro and nanofluids, and living polymers. Scientific newcomers also benefited
from organized lunch discussions and presentations from editors of the American Physical
Society (E. Sesé Sansa, A. Curatolo), where they found learning the editorial process very
useful. Facilitated discussions on broad topics such as the impact of AI to science, publishing,
and problems faced by early career researchers also brought out the voices of scientific
newcomers.
Finally, the workshop was shaped by the emergence of a community of early career
researchers, whose enthusiasm and active participation were felt by both their peers and more
senior attendees. This dynamic fostered a sense of community, encouraged potential
collaborations, and helped reduce social barriers for others.

4. The scientific results of the conference in the broader sense.

The workshop achieved several main results: it featured a broad range of topics in the field,
allowing participants to get to know rising scientists in neighbouring domains and to acquire
newfound interest on new issues; it cemented a community of young researchers, that
interacted lively during talks, poster sessions (that featured a particularly positive atmosphere),
discussion sessions (Q&A) and also during breaks; it allowed participants to interact with two
scientific editors in relevant journals and to discuss critically the editorial landscape; all in all, we
are sure IntCha24 allowed people to meet and know each other, to discuss new results and that
it especially fostered new collaborations and strengthened the community as a whole. The focus
of the conference on young researchers, the relaxed but scientifically intense poster sessions
and the general atmosphere have been cited, when asked for feedback, to be important factors
of the event and pushed participants to declare themselves extremely satisfied and willing to
participate again in similar further events. Thanks to the interdisciplinary nature of the
conference, most participants declared to have gained new interests, specifically to more
“fringe” topics in the community, such as information in biology and micro/nanofluidics.