Göttingen Graduate Center for Neurosciences, Biophysics, and Molecular Biosciences

Godec, Aljaz, Dr.

Emmy Noether research group leader


  • Since 2017 Head of the Mathematical Biophysics Group, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen (Germany)
  • 2012 - 2017 Research associate, Department of Molecular Modeling, National Institute of Chemistry, Ljubljana, Slovenia (on leave)
  • 2014 - 2017 Alexander von Humboldt postdoctoral fellow, Theoretical Physics Group at the Institute of Physics and Astronomy, University of Potsdam (Germany)
  • 2012 - 2014 Postdoctoral fellow, Theoretical Physics Group at the Institute of Physics and Astronomy, University of Potsdam (Germany)
  • 2012 Doctorate in Theoretical Physics, University of Ljubljana (Slovenia)




Major Research Interests

The Mathematical Biophysics group at the MPI-BPC is developing and applying methods of mathematical physics and the theory of stochastic processes to study phenomena in biophysics. Our main research focus is currently the non-equilibrium statistical mechanics of single molecules. In particular, we aim at a trajectory-based description of macromolecular conformation dynamics as well as of their spatial transport, binding, and reactions at low-copy numbers. Our work is based on rigorous analysis supported by computer simulation methods.



Homepage Department / Research Group

https://www.mpinat.mpg.de/godec



Selected Recent Publications


  • Bebon R, Godec A (2023) Controlling Uncertainty of Empirical First-Passage Times in the Small-Sample Regime, Phys. Rev. Lett. 131, 237101.

  • Dieball C, Godec A (2022) Mathematical, Thermodynamical, and Experimental Necessity for Coarse Graining Empirical Densities and Currents in Continuous Space, Phys. Rev. Lett. 129, 140601.

  • Blom K, Godec A (2021) Criticality in Cell Adhesion, Phys. Rev. X 11, 031067.

  • Hartich D, Godec A (2021) Emergent memory and kinetic hysteresis in strongly driven networks, Phys. Rev. X 11, 041047.

  • Lapolla A, Godec A (2020) Faster uphill relaxation in thermodynamically equidistant temperature quenches, Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 110602.

  • Hartich D, Godec A (2018) Duality between relaxation and first passage in reversible Markov dynamics: rugged energy landscapes disentangled, New. J. Phys. (Fast Track Communication), 20, 112002

  • Lapolla A, Godec A (2018) Unfolding tagged Particle Histories in Single-File Diffusion: Exact Single- and Two-Tag Local Times Beyond Large Deviation Theory, New. J. Phys. 20, 113021

  • Godec A, Metzler R (2017) First passage-time statistics for two-channel diffusion, J. Phys. A: Math. Theor., 50, 084001 (special issue 'Emerging talents')

  • Godec A, Metzler R (2016) Universal proximity effect in target search kinetics in the few-encounter limit, Phys. Rev. X, 6, 041037

  • Godec A, Metzler R (2016) First passage time distribution in heterogeneity controlled kinetics: going beyond the mean first passage time, Sci. Rep. 6, 20349