Broadly speaking, my research has so far focused on the computational study of many-body, dynamical, and complex systems, at the interface between theoretical physics and applied mathematics.

My more specific published interests can be roughly classified into three themes, that each have their full-fledged descriptions linked below and on my home page. I here say a few words about each.

A first theme is active matter, ensembles of particles or agents that consume energy at the microscopic level to turn it into mechanical work. In my work, I have tried to address two overarching questions regarding these systems:

• What fraction of the properties of common active systems truly requires being non-equilibrium to produce? Can a properly designed conservative system display active-like behaviour due to another factor, in particular Galilean symmetry breaking?
• How different are the dynamics of usual active systems when one adds couplings between the polarities of particles and other variables? In particular, can self-torques lead to new control strategies in robotics and multiagent pathfinding?

A second theme is the study of dense disordered systems, in particular jammed packings, ensembles of particles in which rigidity emerges from collective effects. My approach to jammed packings is primarily motivated by my interest for their geometry: how come some packings are much more likely to occur than others, when they often all look equally disordered? In other words, what is the ensemble of jammed packings for a collection of particles? My approach to these problems has motivated two axes of research:

• Deducing simple scaling laws for the behaviour of disordered jammed packings from simple arguments on their geometry;
• Developing new algorithms to study jammed packings through the lens of high-dimensional geometry, via the energy landscape picture.

A last theme that has kept me busy in the last few years is that of correlated disorder, the broad family of point patterns that display some correlations between their positions, yet are not fully ordered like a (quasi)crystal. My motivations to study such systems arise from both mathematical and physical perspectives:

• On the mathematical side, it is still unclear what makes a set of features in a pair correlation function realizable by a point pattern or, worse, by a sphere packing. By writing algorithms that explore the set of structures realizing a given correlation feature, I am interested in probing the existence and number of solutions to this intricate inverse problem;
• On the physical side, correlated disorder is both connected to critical structures that display long-range correlations and even sometimes hyperuniformity (which connects well with my interest for jamming), and to materials that have been proposed as interesting for transport applications, and in particular optics. Since I have long had an interest for optics, in particular in disordered media, I am exploring correlated disorder as a design space for materials.

Ongoing unpublished interests include the estimation of entropies beyond equilibrium systems, using a combination of tools from geometry, information theory, machine learning and statistical physics.

A side-interest related to entropies is that of time-reversal-symmetry breaking in simple models using path-integral, hydrodynamic, or information theoretical tools, as it is possible to rephrase this problem as a measure of an entropy production rate.

I am also generically interested in better understanding the physics of liquids, and in particular geometric signatures of ordering in dense liquids.

Below, I list my complete research output, as of September 2025.

AWARDS and honors

1. Alexei Likhtman Poster Prize, 9th Edwards Symposium, University of Cambridge | 2025
2. APS-DSOFT Gallery of Soft Matter, Video Prize | 2024
3. APS-DFD Milton Van Dyke Award, First Prize | 2019
4. APS-DFD Milton Van Dyke Award, First Prize | 2017

PATENTS (‡ indicateS EQUAL contributions)

1. M. Casiulis‡, A. H. Shih‡, S. Martiniani, U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/651,613 filed May 24, 2024 Entitled “SYSTEM, METHOD AND COMPUTER-ACCESSIBLE MEDIUM FOR ACCELERATED GENERATION OF STATISTICALLY CORRELATED POINT STRUCTURES”

Papers (‡ indicateS EQUAL contributions)

1. L. V. Luzzato, M. Casiulis, S. Martiniani, I. A. Kovács, Spatial and Temporal Cluster Tomography of Active Matter, ArXiv:2511.09444 (2025) [In review at PRL]
2. M. Casiulis‡, A. H. Shih‡, S. Martiniani, Gyromorphs: a new class of functional disordered materials, Physical Review Letters 135(19), 196101 (2025). Featured in Optica’s OPN, Editor’s Suggestion
3. P. Suryadevara‡, M. Casiulis‡, S. Martiniani, The Basins of Attraction of Soft Sphere Packings Are Not Fractal, ArXiv:2409.12113 (2025) [In review at PRL]
4. M. Casiulis, E. Arbel, Y. Lahini, S. Martiniani, N. Oppenheimer, M. Yah Ben Zion, A geometric condition for robot-swarm cohesion and cluster-flock transition, PNAS 122 (37), e2502211122 (2025)
5. A. H. Shih‡, M. Casiulis‡, S. Martiniani, Fast Generation of Spectrally-Shaped Disorder, Physical Review E, 110 (3), 034122 (2024). Featured in Physics, Editor’s Suggestion
6. C. Anzivino‡, M. Casiulis‡, T. Zhang, S. Martiniani, A. S. Moussa, A. Zaccone, Estimating RCP as the densest isostatic packing in polydisperse hard spheres, Journal of Chemical Physics 158, 044901 (2023)
7. M. Casiulis, S. Martiniani, When you can’t count, sample! Computable entropies beyond equilibrium from basin volumes, Papers in Physics 15, 150001 (2023)
8. M. Casiulis, D. Levine, Emergent Synchronization and Flocking in Purely Repulsive Self-Navigating Particles, Physical Review E, 106(4), 044611 (2022)
9. M. Casiulis, D. Hexner, D. Levine, Self-propulsion and self-navigation: Activity is a precursor to jamming, Physical Review E 104, 064614 (2021)
10. G. Durey, Q. Magdelaine, M. Casiulis, H. Kwon, J. Mazet, P. Chantelot, A. Gauthier, C. Clanet, D. Quéré, Droplets Impaling on a Cone, Physical Review Fluids 5, 110507 (2020)
11. M. Casiulis, M. Tarzia, L. F. Cugliandolo, O. Dauchot, Velocity and Speed Correlations in Hamiltonian Flocks,  Physical Review Letters 124, 198001 (2020)
12. M. Casiulis, M. Tarzia, L. F. Cugliandolo, O. Dauchot, Order by disorder: saving collective motion from topological defects in a conservative model, Journal of Statistical Mechanics, 013209 (2020)
13. M. Casiulis Study of a non-Galilean Hamiltonian liquid: collective motion without activity PhD Thesis, Sorbonne Université, NNT: 2019SORUS647, tel: 03347594
14. M. Casiulis, M. Tarzia, L. F. Cugliandolo, O. Dauchot, Ferromagnetism-induced phase separation in a two-dimensional spin fluid Journal of Chemical Physics 150(15), 154501 (2019)
15. G. Durey, H. Kwon, Q. Magdelaine, M. Casiulis, J. Mazet, L. Keiser, H. Bense, P. Colinet, J. Bico, E. Reyssat Marangoni bursting: Evaporation-induced emulsification of a two-component droplet, Physical Review Fluids 10, 100501 (2018)
16. M. Dupont-Nivet, M. Casiulis, T. Laudat, C. I. Westbrook, S. Schwartz, Microwave-stimulated Raman adiabatic passage in a Bose-Einstein condensate on an atom chip, Physical Review A 91, 053420 (2015)

RESEARCH TALKS (BOLDed orange indicates invited contributions)

1. “Understanding and harnessing disorder, from point patterns to materials”, LOMA Seminar, Université de Bordeaux, November 13th 2025
2. “Understanding and harnessing disorder, from point patterns to materials”, LIPhy Theory Seminar, Université Grenoble-Alpes, November 4th 2025
3. “Correlated Disorder as Metamaterials”, 9th Edwards Symposium, Cambridge University, September 2025
4. “Understanding and Harnessing Disorder Through Optimization”, 4èmes Journées du GDR IDE, Sète, September 2025
5. STATPHYS satellite: Classical and Quantum Complexity in Statistical Mechanics, Molveno, July 2025 – Poster
6. “Robotic Swarms can Pull their Weight to Cluster or Flock”, Laboratoire Charles Coulomb Seminar, University of Montpellier, July 9th 2025
7. “Gyromorphs: a new class of functional disordered materials”, APS Global Physics Summit 2025, Anaheim, March 19th 2025
8. “Painting in Fourier Space”, APS Global Physics Summit 2025 Invited Session, Anaheim, March 17th 2025
9. “Understanding and Harnessing Disorder”, OIST Seminar, Onna, Okinawa, Japan, January 29th 2025
10. “Fast generation of spectrally shaped disorder”, Hyperuniformity Workshop, INRIA, Paris, December 11th-December 13th 2024
11. “Spectral Optimization for Functional Materials”, Simons Center for Computational Physical Chemistry Symposium, September 2024
12. Center for Soft and Living Matter Opening Symposium, University of Pennsylvania, June 2024 – Poster
13. “Shaping and Harnessing disorder in photonic materials”, APS March Meeting 2024, Minneapolis, March 2024
14. “Spectrally-Shaped Disorder for Materials Design and Integration”, Berkeley Statistical Physics Meeting, Berkeley, January 2024
15. Les Houches Summer School 2023: Waves in Complex Media, From Theory to Practice – Poster
16. “A coordination approach to Random Close-Packing”, Simons Center for Computational Chemistry Seminar, New York, May 8th, 2023
17. Inaugural Symposium of the Simons Center for Computational Physical Chemistry, New York, October 7th, 2022 – Poster
18. “A coordination approach to random close-packing”, CSMR Monday meetings, September 26th, 2022
19. “Volumes in high-dimensional landscapes” – NCS-17 meeting, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, June 24th, 2022
20. “Direct Measurements of configurational entropies” – Physics of Information Workshop, NYU, New York, May 24th, 2022
21. “Self-navigating particles: escapes, jams, and sync” – Gulliver lab Active Matter Meeting, Paris, December 9th, 2021
22. “Self-navigating particles: escapes, jams, and sync” – Physics Department Seminar, Technion, Haifa, July 7th, 2021
23. “Collective Motion Without Activity” – Theoretical Physics Journal Club, Technion, Haifa, January 26th, 2020
24. “Collective Motion Without Activity” – MSC lab Seminar, Paris, December 5th, 2019
25. “Collective Motion Without Activity” – Gulliver lab Active Matter Meeting, Paris, May 28th, 2019
26. “Collective Motion Without Activity” – Gov lab group seminar at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, January 29th, 2019
27. “Collective Motion without Activity” – Hayakawa group seminar at YITP, Kyoto, December 21st, 2018
28. “Collective Motion without Activity” – Osaka Cybermedia Center Seminar, Osaka, December 21st, 2018
29. “Collective Motion without Activity” – Simons Collaboration “Cracking the Glass Problem” seminar, Paris, November 15th, 2018
30. Les Houches Summer School 2018: Active Matter and Non-Equilibrium Statistical Physics – Poster
31. Journées de Physique Statistique 2018 (January 25th and 26th, 2018, ESPCI Paris) – Short Talk: “Collective Motion In Equilibrium”
32. Beg Rohu Summer School 2017: Out of equilibrium dynamics, evolution and genetics – Poster
33. Beg Rohu Summer School 2016: Concepts and Methods of Statistical Physics – Poster