David Sivak

David Sivak
Simon Fraser University (BC)

David Sivak’s transformative and interdisciplinary research focuses on the field of nonequilibrium statistical biophysics. His recent work touches on the way fluctuation-dominated biomolecular machines operate and how they can achieve efficient energy transduction These fundamentally nonequilibrium questions are of course extremely complex and require novel ways of thinking and novel theoretical tools. Compared to that of many in the field, his work stands out because it is strongly focused on bridging the gap between theory and experiments, by guiding the design of experiments to explore or manipulate molecular systems. His work opens a way to a full understanding of the inner working of molecular machines, and might also bring answers to fundamental questions about the evolutionary optimization of biomolecule structure and function. Perhaps most exciting of all, it might provide guidance for the design of new bio-inspired synthetic machines.