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Warsaw Symposium
"Patterns: On Growth and Form"

Tuesday, May 26, 2026

Nature strikes us with a plethora of patterns, shapes, forms, morphologies, and geometries. Their beauty has inspired people to ponder for centuries. Where does this variety of forms come from? How can we describe and quantify their shapes? What mechanisms drive their formation? Why do similar patterns appear in various physical and living systems? These are just a few of the topics that we will try to cover during the symposium.

The symposium aims to promote knowledge exchange among like-minded researchers working in seemingly disparate fields. We especially encourage contributions from students and early-career researchers.

Join us for a day of interdisciplinary presentations and lively discussions!

Program

Book of abstracts: PDF, HTML

Monday, May 25, 2026

14:30 – 16:00 Lab Visits (Piotr Szymczak's and Maciej Lisicki's Labs)

Tuesday, May 26, 2026

08:45 – 08:55Registration
08:55 – 09:00Opening Remarks
09:00 – 10:30Presentations
09:00 – 09:30(1) Jaap A. Kaandorp | Modelling gastrulation in jelly fish and sea anemones
09:30 – 09:45(2) Laureline Julien | Morphogenesis establishes directional transport in the gastrovascular network of the jellyfish Aurelia aurita during development
09:45 – 10:00(3) Thibault Chassereau | Estimation of flow inside the gastrovascular network of the jellyfish Aurelia aurita induced by the swimming motion
10:00 – 10:15(4) Jarosław Stolarski | Who draws the pattern? Physiology behind coral fine-scale skeletal structures
10:15 – 10:30(5) Łucja Kowalewska | Gyrobodies: gyroid-type cubic membranes emerging from the plant thylakoid network
10:30 – 11:00Coffee Break
11:00 – 12:30Presentations
11:00 – 11:30(6) Alina Ciach | Self-assembly in mixtures with competing interactions
11:30 – 11:45(7) Joanna Materska | System of motile and growing particles
11:45 – 12:00(8) Marta A. Chabowska | Morphological diversity induced by surface potential energy
12:00 – 12:15(9) Magdalena Załuska-Kotur | Pattern formation mechanisms in recrystallization processes
12:15 – 12:30(10) Anna Niedźwiecka | How proteins shape mineral patterns: spherulitic growth of calcium carbonate controlled by acid-rich proteins
12:30 – 13:15Lunch
13:15 – 15:00Poster session
15:00 – 16:15Presentations
15:00 – 15:30(11) Michael Berhanu | Erosion patterns by dissolution
15:30 – 15:45(12) Michał Bogdan | Quantifying the openness of porous materials using topological parameters
15:45 – 16:00(13) Martin Chaigne | Sediment transport instability in a radial experiment
16:00 – 16:15(14) King Lun NG | Patterns of oscillating droplets on vibrating substrates: A molecular model study

Location

Środowiskowe Laboratorium Ciężkich Jonów (Heavy Ion Laboratory)
Pasteura 5A, Warsaw, Poland
Conference Room B

Registration

Attendees and presenters are kindly requested to register here.

There is no fee to participate in this event.

Organizing Committee

Stanisław Żukowski (University of Warsaw & Université Paris Cité)
Piotr Szymczak (University of Warsaw)
Annemiek Cornelissen (Université Paris Cité & CNRS)
Stéphane Douady (Université Paris Cité & CNRS)
Tomasz Szawełło (University of Warsaw)
Dawid Woś (University of Warsaw)

Please direct any inquiries to: s.zukowski@uw.edu.pl