Dr. Thomas Gibaud | Mechanics of Functional and Smart Structures | Best Researcher Award

Research Director at Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique | France

Dr. Thomas Gibaud is a physicist specializing in soft condensed matter, with a research focus on the self-assembly, dynamics, and mechanical properties of complex colloidal and biomimetic systems. He completed his physics education in France, earning a Bachelor’s degree from Université du Mans and a Master’s degree from Université Pierre et Marie Curie, followed by the national teaching qualification Agrégation de Sciences Physiques. He received his Ph.D. in 2008 from the Université de Fribourg under Peter Schurtenberger and Anna Stradner, where he explored the interplay between phase separation and the glass transition in protein suspensions. After postdoctoral work at ENS de Lyon and Brandeis University, where he investigated yielding in gels and phage-based self-assembly, he joined CNRS as a researcher in 2012. He earned his Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches in 2018 and became Directeur de Recherche at ENS de Lyon in 2025. Dr. Thomas Gibaud has authored 53 peer-reviewed publications, including work in Nature, PNAS, Science Advances, and PRX, and currently holds an h-index of 24. His research combines rheology, scattering, ultrasound, and advanced microscopy to design and probe innovative soft materials. He is also deeply committed to scientific service, mentoring, and community-building within the soft-matter field.

Profile:  Scopus | Orcid | Google Scholar

Featured Publications:

Gibaud, T., Barry, E., Zakhary, M. J., Henglin, M., Ward, A., Yang, Y., Berciu, C., … (2012). Reconfigurable self-assembly through chiral control of interfacial tension. Nature, 481, 348.

Cardinaux, F., Gibaud, T., Stradner, A., & Schurtenberger, P. (2007). Interplay between spinodal decomposition and glass formation in proteins exhibiting short-range attractions. Physical Review Letters, 99(11), 118301.

Gibaud, T., Frelat, D., & Manneville, S. (2010). Heterogeneous yielding dynamics in a colloidal gel. Soft Matter, 6(15), 3482–3488.

Gogelein, C., Nagele, G., Tuinier, R., Gibaud, T., Stradner, A., & Schurtenberger, P. (2008). A simple patchy colloid model for the phase behavior of lysozyme dispersions. Journal of Chemical Physics, 8, 085102.

Gibaud, T., & Schurtenberger, P. (2009). A closer look at arrested spinodal decomposition in protein solutions. Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, 21(32), 322201.