Areas Of Research

Welcome to the web pages of the Statistical and Nonlinear Physics Division (SNPD). The SNPD is a Division of the European Physical Society (EPS) that represents and provides a forum for scientists interested in statistical and nonlinear physics, complex systems and interdisciplinary applications (pictures courtesy of P. Manneville and A.-L. Barabasi).

The EPS Statistical and Nonlinear Physics Prizes - 2025

** Call for Nominations***

EPS Statistical and Nonlinear Physics Prize 2025

OBJECT: The EPS Statistical and Nonlinear Physics Prize recognises outstanding research contributions in the area of statistical physics, nonlinear physics, complex systems, complex networks.

CANDIDATES: One or two persons that have made independent or convergent ground-breaking and agenda-setting contributions for the development of the field. Prize winners can have any nationality.

NOMINATIONS: Self nominations will not be considered. The nominators must send an email attaching a letter with a brief description of the most important research contributions of the candidate and a list of up to 6 key publications (maximum 2 pages) to the Chair of the board Raffaella Burioni (raffaella.burioni@unipr.it) with the subject header "EPS-SNPD award nomination". We encourage nominations of scientists from groups currently underrepresented in Statistical and Nonlinear Physics.

DEADLINE: May 30, 2025

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EPS Statistical and Nonlinear Physics Early Career Prize 2025

OBJECT: The EPS Statistical and Nonlinear Physics Early Career Prize recognises outstanding research contributions in the area of statistical physics, nonlinear physics, complex systems, complex networks.

CANDIDATES: One or two persons in their early career stage (defined as having obtained the PhD degree less than 6 years ago at the time of nomination) that have made independent or convergent ground-breaking contributions for the development of the field. Prize winners can have any nationality.

NOMINATIONS: Self nominations will not be considered. The nominators must send an email attaching a letter with a brief description of the most important research contributions of the candidate and a list of up to 6 key publications (maximum 2 pages) to the Chair of the board Raffaella Burioni (raffaella.burioni@unipr.it) with the subject header "EPS-SNPD award nomination". We encourage nominations of scientists from groups currently underrepresented in Statistical and Nonlinear Physics.

DEADLINE: May 30, 2025

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The 2023 EPS Statistical and Nonlinear Physics Prize has been awarded to

Amnon Aharony and Amos Maritan

Amnon Aharony  (Tel Aviv University, Israel)

is honored "for his seminal contributions in the application of renormalization group theory to critical phenomena
and classification of universality classes, fractals and  percolation, and the theory of disordered  magnetic systems".

Amos Maritan (University of Padova, Italy)

is honored "for his seminal contributions in the understanding the physical principles underlying collective behavior in biological systems, including protein folding, DNA organization, ecosystems, and river networks".

The 2023 EPS-SNPD Early Career Prize has been awarded to

Ada Altieri and Patrick Pietzonka.

Ada Altieri    (Université Paris Cité, France)    

is honored "for her outstanding contribution to theory of the jamming transition and to inter-disciplinary applications of statistical physics to species-rich ecosystems ".

Patrick Pietzonka  (Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Dresden, Germany)

is honored "for his outstanding contribution to the statistics of current fluctuations in active systems and to thermodynamic
uncertainty relations.".

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New Board members of SNPD

The new Board of the EPS-SNP Division for the next three years has been appointed and is now in office.

Its members are:

Raffaella Burioni, University of Parma, Parma  - Italy (Chair)
Erik Aurell, KTH Royal Institute of Technology,  Stockholm - Sweden
Martin Evans, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh - UK
Irene Giardina, Sapienza University, Roma  - Italy
Ralf Metzler, University of Postdam, Postdam - Germany
Maria Angeles Serrano, University of Barcelona, Barcelona,  - Spain
Katarzyna Sznjad-Weron, University of Science and Technology, Wroclaw  - Poland
Massimo Vergassola, Ecole Normale Supérieure and CNRS, Paris  - France

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New Board members of SNPD. 

Many thanks to Christian Beck (Chair), Leticia Cugliandolo, Ewa Gudowska-Nowak, Raul Toral, Guido Caldarelli, Stefano Ruffo and Holger Kantz whose terms as board members of EPS-SNPD have ended after 2x3=6 years in December 2022.

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The EPS Statistical and Nonlinear Physics Prizes

General info on the prizes:

1. EPS Statistical and Nonlinear Physics Prize The EPS  Statistical and Nonlinear Physics Prize is awarded by  EPS for outstanding research contributions  in the area of statistical physics, nonlinear physics, complex systems and complex networks. The prize winner will have made ground-breaking and agenda setting contributions for the development of this field. The prize can be shared by up to 2 persons. The prize consists of a glass trophy and a cash sum. Prize winners can have any nationality.

2. EPS-SNPD Early Career Prize This prize is awarded to an early career scientist (defined as having obtained his/her PhD less than 6 years ago at the time of nomination) who has made outstanding research contributions to an area of statistical physics, nonlinear physics, complex systems, or complex networks, as evidenced by a top quality and highly cited paper in an international journal. The prize can be shared by up to 2 persons. The prize consists of a glass trophy and a cash sum. Prize winners can have any nationality.

History: The previous prizes (2019) were awarded during the 2nd EPS conference "Statistical Physics of Complex Systems" at Nordita/Stockholm 7-11 May 2019. 

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History: The above prizes were created by EPS in 2017 and are awarded every 2 years.

The previous prize winners were:  2017---Peter Grassberger and Itamar Procaccia

                                                          2019---Sergio Ciliberto and Satya Majumdar

                                                          2021---Albert-Laszlo Barabasi and Angelo Vulpiani

The early career prize went to Laura Foini, Edgar Roldan (2017), Karel Proesmans, Valentina Ros (2019), Federico Battiston, Caterina De Bacco (2021) 

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Aims of the Division

The objective of the Statistical and Nonlinear Physics Division (SNPD) is the advancement of research in statistical and nonlinear physics, the dissemination of key results in this area to the general public, and the promotion and coordination of interdisciplinary research. More specifically, the SNPD aims to form an umbrella organization for coordination of research in statistical physics, nonlinear physics, complex systems and interdisciplinary applications and

• to promote studies and dissemination in this general research area
• to facilitate contacts between members
• to encourage collaboration and exchange of knowledge between different disciplines
• to stimulate the interest of young scientists in the field of statistical physics, nonlinear physics, and complex systems
• to organize and support conferences and workshops
• to maintain contacts with related divisions within EPS
• to communicate with similar organizations worldwide

Areas of research

Research areas represented by the division include (but are not restricted to)

• nonequilibrium statistical physics .
• complex networks
• nonlinear dynamical system
• chaos and turbulence
• stochastic modelling
• spin glasses and disordered quantum systems
• pattern formation
• long-range interacting systems
• phase transitions and critical phenomena
• interdisciplinary applications in physics, biology, economics, and social sciences

Past conference highlights

• Statphys26 took place in Lyon on 18-22 July 2016 and was sponsored by EPS as a Europhysics conference. The board of SNPD had its annual board meeting in Lyon on the occasion of Statphys26. The SNPD also hosted an honorary dinner for the new Boltzmann medalists in Lyon.
• Dynamics of Complex Systems was yet another Europhysics conference organized by the Division and this took place in Warwick 18-20 May 2016.
• Dynamics Days 2016 (Corfu) was sponsored by EPS as well (6-10 June 2016).
• Crossroads in Complex Systems: This Europhysics conference took place 5-8 June 2017 at IFISC in Palma de Mallorca. There was a special session organized by the Statistical and Nonlinear Physics Division (SNPD) of EPS.
• SigmaPhi conference on Statistical Physics. This was supported by EPS as a Europhysics conference. There was also a satellite summer school on New Trends in Statistical Physics for young researchers, organised by SNPD immediately before the conference.
• 2017 saw the 100th anniversary of the life and work of Marian Smoluchowski (1872-1917). On this occasion the Statistical and Nonlinear Physics Division organised the Anniversary Smoluchowski Symposium/1st EPS conference on Statistical and Nonlinear Physics in Krakow (4-8 September 2017).
• The EPS Statistical and Nonlinear Physics Divsion joined forces with the EPS Condensed Matter Division and the Sektion Kondensierte Materie of DPG to organize a joint DPG/EPS spring conference in Berlin 11-16 March 2018. More than 6000 participants attended this huge meeting.
• New interaction between EPS Plasma Physics Division and EPS Statistical and Nonlinear Physics Division: Joint sessions organized at the 45th Plasma Physics Conference in Prague 2-6 July 2018.
• Statistical Physics of Complex Systems. This joint EPS-Nordita conference was organized by our Division in Stockholm 7-11 May 2019.
• Statphys27 took place in Buenos Aires 8-12 July 2019 and was sponsored and supported by EPS-SNPD. There was a special EPS session during this conference.
• Statistical Physics of Complex Systems 3, Trieste 8-10 September 2021. This conference was a joint venture of SISSA, ICTP and EPS.
• Physics for Society: Grand Challenges in the Horizon 2050, Berlin 28-29 October 2021 This meeting was joint between EPS and DPG, on the occasion of 175 years of DPG. It took place in hybrid form, and it addressed future research highlights as well as societal challenges of science. 
• EPS Forum, Paris 2-4 June 2022 This conference brought young MSc, PhD students and researchers in contact with industry. It took place at Sorbonne University.

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Partnerships:

The EPS Statistical and Nonlinear Physics Division has links with the IOP Nonlinear and Complex Physics Group. We also collaborate with the Fachverband Dynamik and Statistische Physik of the DPG. The journal  EPL is published under the scientific responsibilty of EPS, with a large section on statistical physics and complex systems.