2026 APS-SAIFR Satellite Global Physics Summit Meeting

To extend the reach and diversity of its annual meetings, the American Physical Society has developed a pilot program of APS Satellite Meetings with the participation of ICTP-SAIFR in Latin America. As part of the APS Global Physics Summit from March 15-20, 2026, ICTP-SAIFR is organizing on March 16 (Monday) a 2-hour Satellite Session on Biological Physics that will be broadcast live to all participants of the APS Meeting, as well as a 2-hour session on Biological Physics for student/postdoc presentations to a local audience.

Graduate students and postdocs can apply until March 7 to present a short talk or poster at the student-postdoc session on Biological Physics. And until March 12, any student or researcher can apply using the online application form below to receive a coupon code which will allow free access to all virtual presentations at the APS Global Physics Summit from March 15-20.

The 2-hour satellite session chaired by William Bialek (Princeton U.) from 13:30-15:30 on March 16 will be held both in the IFT-UNESP auditorium and in the Denver APS conference center as a joint hybrid activity. The student/postdoc presentations chaired by Pablo de Castro (ICTP-SAIFR/USP) will be from 16:00-18:00 in the IFT-UNESP auditorium. The complete schedule of sessions of the APS Global Physics Summit can be found on the APS Global Physics Summit webpage.

There is no registration fee for participation in the APS-SAIFR Satellite Meeting.

Organizers:

• Nathan Berkovits (ICTP-SAIFR/IFT-UNESP)
• William Bialek (Princeton U.)
• Pablo de Castro (ICTP-SAIFR/USP)

Announcement:

Click HERE for online application

Application deadline for short talks: March 7, 2026 

Application deadline for access code: March 12, 2026 

Speakers for APS satellite session:

• 13:30  Orit Peleg, University of Colorado – Where physics meets behavior in animal groups
• 14:00  Pablo de Castro, University of São Paulo – Collective dynamics of self-propelled agents inspired by quorum-sensing bacteria and tissue cells
• 14:30  Andrea J. Liu, University of Pennsylvania – Tunable matter as a unifying paradigm for biological function
• 15:00  Alexandre Ramos, University of São Paulo – Characterizing the regulatory logic of transcriptional control at the DNA sequence level by ensembles of thermodynamic models

Short talks for student/postdoc session:

• 16:00 Luciana Renata De Oliveira (Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil) A Hybrid Experimental and Computational Approach to Protein–Membrane Interactions Using GUVs
• 16:15 Nathan Silvano (IFISC, CSIC-UIB) Effects of higher trophic levels and plant heterogeneity on the persistence of a host–parasitoid system
• 16:30 William Gabriel Carreras Oropesa (ICTP-SAIFR, Brazil) Transport Properties of Active Particles Moving on Adjustable Networks
• 16:45 Gabriel Vian (IFT – UNESP, Brazil) Hierarchical Bayesian Modelling of Dengue Epidemics
• 17:00 Denise Cammarota (IFT UNESP, Brazil) Understanding the landscape of dengue susceptibility through compartmental age-structured model simulations and data analysis
• 17:15 Lambu Tatsa Carmel (UNIVERSITY OF DSCHANG, Cameroon) Collective behaviors in delayed swarmalator systems *
• 17:30 Tuan Pham (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands) Robustness-speed-dissipationTrade-off for Adaptation of Gene-regulatory Networks *
• 17:45 Gaston Briozzo (FaMAF, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina) Agent-environment model with emergent collective behavior *

* Online presentations

• 13:30 – 15:30  APS Presentations from the Denver conference center and the IFT-UNESP auditorium
• 15:30 – 16:00  Poster Session/Coffee break
• 16:00 – 18:00  Student-postdoc presentations (IFT-UNESP auditorium)

• Guilherme Giovanini (Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil) A control theoretical approach to gene regulation reveals quantitative constraints for dynamic homeostasis in stochastic gene expression
• Sidney Natzuka Junior (IFT – Unesp, Brazil) Critical Behavior of Stacked Boltzmann Machines

Announcement:

Click HERE for online application

Application deadline: March 5, 2026 

Attention! Some participants in ICTP-SAIFR activities have received email from fake travel agencies asking for credit card information. All communication with participants will be made by ICTP-SAIFR staff using an e-mail “@ictp-saifr.org”. We will not send any mailings about accommodation that require a credit card number or any sort of deposit. Also, if you are staying at Hotel Intercity the Universe Paulista, please confirm with the Uber/Taxi driver that the hotel is located at Rua Pamplona 83 in Bela Vista (and not in Jardim Etelvina).

Poster presentation: Participants who are presenting a poster MUST BRING A PRINTED BANNER. The banner size should be at most 1 m (width) x 1,5 m (length). We do not accept A4 or A3 paper. Click here to see what a banner looks like: http://designplast.ind.br/produtos/detalhe/impressao-digital/banner/119/9

How to reach the Institute: The program will be held at ICTP South American Institute, located at IFT-UNESP, which is across the street from a major bus and subway terminal (Terminal Barra Funda). The address which is closer to the entrance of the IFT-UNESP building is R. Jornalista Aloysio Biondi, 120 – Barra Funda, São Paulo. The easiest way to reach us is by subway or bus, please find instructions here.

Security issues: Although São Paulo is a relatively safe city, be careful when using cellphones on the street, avoid isolated areas at night, and be aware when crossing the street that cars may not stop for pedestrians. Also, please do not leave valuable items like laptops unattended even for short breaks. At the IFT-UNESP, there are storage lockers available and keys can be obtained with our secretaries.