Aleksandra Walczak

Research Director, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, France

Aleksandra Walczak received her PhD in physics at the University of California (US), working on models of stochastic gene expression. After a graduate fellowship at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (California), she worked on applying information theory to signal processing in small gene regulatory networks at the Princeton Center for Theoretical Science (US). Currently based at the École Normale Supérieure as a CNRS researcher, she studies the effects of selection on population genealogies, collective behaviour of bird flocks and statistical descriptions of the immune system. Dr Walczak was awarded the “Grand Prix Jacques Herbrand de l’Académie des sciences" in 2014 and the bronze medal of CNRS in 2016. Her ERC project 'RECOGNIZE' focuses on the self-organization of the immune repertoire at the molecular and evolutionary level, by using a combination of data analysis and statistical mechanics modelling. Dr Walczak aims to shed light on the diversity and complexity of immune receptors on the surfaces of B and T cells, which interact with pathogens, recognize them and initiate an immune response.