Our Team

Andrea's research sits at the interface of high-energy theory, condensed-matter physics and statistical field theory. He trained at the University of Genoa, completing a PhD on AdS/CFT and its applications, and then held postdoctoral positions at the University of Cambridge, the University of Wuerzburg and the Universite libre de Bruxelles before returning to Genoa, where he is now Associate Professor. His research connects hydrodynamic effective theory, gauge-gravity duality and conformal methods to strongly correlated matter, spanning transport in quantum critical systems, strong-field effects in superconductors, conformal perturbation theory near critical points and topological quantum field theories with boundaries. At the STELLAR Lab, he develops effective descriptions of strongly interacting and non-equilibrium systems, including driven fluids and active matter, combining statistical field theory, hydrodynamics, kinetic theory and holography.

Nico's research spans statistical and conformal field theory, critical phenomena and non-perturbative questions in quantum field theory. At the University of Genoa and INFN Genova he has developed conformal perturbation theory as a practical tool for moving away from critical points, including quantitative comparisons with lattice gauge theory. His more recent work also studies effective-string descriptions of confining flux tubes and how universal critical behaviour emerges across continuum and lattice formulations. At the STELLAR Lab, he anchors the statistical-field-theory programme, with particular emphasis on conformal methods, confinement, universality and phase transitions.

Daniel's research spans hydrodynamics, non-equilibrium effective theory and gauge-gravity duality, with a particular interest in how collective descriptions fail, reorganise or acquire additional long-lived degrees of freedom. He earned his PhD in string theory at Durham University and subsequently held postdoctoral positions at the Technion, the University of Science and Technology of China, INFN Genova and Ecole Polytechnique before joining the University of Genoa as a researcher. His work has included holographic quantum liquids, anyonic systems, quasihydrodynamics, anomalous transport, active matter and boost-agnostic Hamiltonian and kinetic theory. At the STELLAR Lab, he works on Schwinger-Keldysh effective theory, non-Gaussian noise and positivity, hydrodynamics beyond isolated poles, driven steady states and the use of non-Galilean dynamics in statistical and computational problems.

Shuvayu's research spans relativistic hydrodynamics, effective field theories of gravity, and their inter-connections through holography. He began his PhD work on black-hole thermodynamics in higher-derivative theories of gravity and the fluid-gravity duality, before extending his interests to stability and causality in relativistic hydrodynamics through dispersion relations and field redefinitions. After completing his PhD at NISER, India, he worked on tidal deformations of black holes as a postdoctoral fellow at IIT Gandhinagar. At the STELLAR Lab, he works on hydrodynamic fluctuations in stable-causal theories of hydrodynamics and on a first-principles understanding of active-matter hydrodynamics using Schwinger-Keldysh effective field theory.

Giorgos's research connects holography, effective field theory, hydrodynamics and generalized global symmetries. He completed his doctoral work at the Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of Amsterdam, where he studied holographic duals of the N=1* gauge theory and related gravitational constructions. His subsequent work has explored higher-group symmetries and brane dynamics as well as the emergence of the chiral anomaly from spin hydrodynamics. At the STELLAR Lab, he works on hydrodynamic and holographic effective theories in which symmetry, anomaly structure and additional collective degrees of freedom constrain transport and long-distance dynamics.

Matteo's research spans quantum field theory, hydrodynamics and non-equilibrium effective theory, with a particular interest in how infrared descriptions are related by duality and constrained by symmetry. During his Master's degree at the University of Genoa, he studied infrared dualities between three-dimensional quantum field theories, especially bosonisation dualities involving Majorana fermions and their connection to topological phases of matter. He is now a PhD candidate in theoretical physics at Genoa, where his work has included both relativistic and boost-agnostic hydrodynamics, the latter providing an effective description relevant to systems such as active matter. At the STELLAR Lab, he is developing Schwinger-Keldysh effective field theory for non-equilibrium physics, with current work on Maxwell-Cattaneo transport and the effective description of non-hydrodynamic poles and branch cuts.