Research Group
“Computational and Statistical Physics”

Martin received his PhD in 2002 from the University of Leipzig under the supervision of Prof. Wolfhard Janke, working on the statistical mechanics of dynamical triangulation models for random surfaces and simplicial quantum gravity. From 2003 to 2005 he worked with Prof. Michel Gingras at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada as a postdoctoral fellow starting research into the low-temperature properties of spin glasses. Between August 2005 and August 2007, he held an Individual Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship, performing research on disordered systems in statistical mechanics and (lattice) field theory, working with Prof. Des Johnston at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland. Since September 2007, he is working at Johannes-Gutenberg University Mainz, first as a postdoctoral fellow in Prof. Binder's group and since January 2008 as an independent junior research group leader in the Emmy Noether Programme of the DFG. At the end of 2011, he joined the AMRC at Coventry University as a Senior Lecturer. In 2013, he became a Reader in Theoretical Physics and in 2020 he was conferred a Professorship in Computational Physics.

Iro joined the AMRC in 2016 after completing her MSc in Mathematics and its Applications at the University of Kent. Under the joint supervision with Nikos Fytas she is now working on furthering our understanding of the physics of the random-field Ising model using combinatorial optimization methods, in particular for the case of discrete random-field distributions and regarding the scaling behavior for continuous distributions in very low (crossover length) and very high (restoration of dimensional reduction) dimensions.

Eren joined the group in Mainz in 2011 to write a Bachelor's thesis on efficient implementations of the Sweeny algorithm for simulations of the random-cluster model. In 2012, Eren joined the group to Coventry to work on extensions of the Sweeny approach as well as a number of further aspects of equilibrium and non-equilibrium properties of the Potts and random cluster models. This includes fragmentation properties of Potts clusters, corner contributions to the free energy and domain ordering kinetics. Eren enjoys to work with a combination of analytical and numerical techniques. He graduated with a PhD in 2015. He now works as a data scientist for Bayer.

Heitor studied physics at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, where he received his BSc in 2001 and his MSc in 2003. During his PhD studies he worked with J. J. Arenzon and Y. Levin on Monte Carlo simulations of hard core lattice gases. He was awarded his PhD degree in 2007. In summer 2009 he joined our group in Mainz to work on the implementation of Monte Carlo simulations without detailed balance in a joint project with Tanja Schilling funded by the Center for Computational Sciences of Mainz University. In September 2010, Heitor moved onto a professor position at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.

Taras studied physics at the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, where he received his Diploma degree in 1997 and his PhD in 2001, working on field theoretic treatments of critical phenomena under the supervision of Y. Holovatch. After being a lecturer in Lviv and a postdoctoral stay in Hannover, he started working as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Waterloo in 2003, working on highly frustrated magnetic systems with Michel Gingras. He joined our group in fall 2010 in a joint project on spin-glass simulations on GPU with Elmar Schömer funded by the Center for Computational Sciences of Mainz University. In 2012, Taras joined the AMRC at Coventry as a Lecturer.

Frank studied physics at the Universität Leipzig. After a stay abroad at ETH Zurich 2005/2006, he received his Diploma in 2008, working with W. Janke on the physics of spin glasses in two dimensions. Frank joined our group in May 2008 as a PhD student and is working on a number of problems relating to the understanding of spin glasses with continuous spins, including the limit of an infinite number of spin components and the development of novel optimization heuristics. Frank graduated with a PhD in 2012. He is now developing a distance learning platform for maths education in high schools.