Katifori, Eleni, PhD

• 1997-2002 B.Sc in Physics, National University of Athens, Greece
• 2002-2008 MA and PhD in Physics with Prof. David Nelson, Harvard University
• 2008-2012 Post-doc at Rockefeller University in New York
• since 2012 head of the independent research group: Physics of Biological Organization at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Göttingen, Germany

Major Research Interests

What are the organizing principles of biological matter? The Max Planck Research Group is trying to understand the physics behind the morphological and functional attributes of living organisms. Our main focus is on understanding biological distribution systems. We use ideas from physics, mathematics and computer science to decipher the complexity of vascular webs and understand their evolution and function. In other biologically inspired projects, we investigate how structures with intricate geometries fold, and we explore questions related to thin shell elasticity and mechanics.


Homepage Department/Research Group
http://www.pbo.ds.mpg.de/



Selected Recent Publications

• Katifori E. and Magnasco M.O., “Quantifying loopy network architectures”, PLoS ONE, 7, e37994 (2012).


• Schroll Robert D. , Katifori E., and Davidovitch Benny, “Elastic building blocks for cofined sheets”, PRL , 106, 074301 (2011). (cover of PRL)


• Katifori E., Szollosi G. J. and Magnasco M. O., “Damage and fluctuations induce loops in optimal transport networks” ,PRL 104, 048704 (2010).
  (cover of PRL)


• Katifori E., Alben S., Cerda E., Nelson D. R. and Dumais J., “Foldable Structures and the Natural Design of Pollen Grains”, PNAS 107, 7635-7639 (2010). (cover of PNAS)


• Katifori E., Alben S. and Nelson D. R., “Collapse and folding of pressurized rings in two dimensions”, PRE 79, 056604 (2009).