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I am Felix Ritort. Welcome to my web site! Last update: October 2009
Here you will find general information about my research interests, publication references, job offers as well as other activities of my research group in Barcelona.
My research activity is carried out in the Departament de Fisica Fonamental at the University of Barcelona. I joined the Physics Faculty in 1997 and have been working in Barcelona since then. My office number is 347 and is located in the third floor of the Physics building of the Physics and Chemistry complex. For maps click here or here.
Traditionally, my research interest has been focused in the area of statistical physics with particular emphasis in the study of disordered systems and non-equilibrium dynamics. These topics are broad enough to comprise a large number of very interesting subjects. There are three fields that currently attract my attention: Biophysics, non-equilibrium dynamics and disordered systems. Although different in themes, objectives and approach all these three fields comprise problems with many aspects in common. From spin-glasses to structural glasses there are many issues that have attracted my attention. As for non-equilibrium systems I am becoming steadily interested in the mechanisms underlying energy exchange processes at the microscopic level. This area is potentially very interesting as it may suggest new routes to explore how to extend current thermodynamic theories to the non-equilibrium regime as well as new clues about their significance in the domain of the "small".
Recently, and related to this subject, I became much interested in the field of molecular biophysics as a way to explore the behavior of small systems. The research in this area has been boosted by the advent of nanotechnologies and the possibility to do experiments at the level of individual molecules. In biomolecular systems energy fluctuations are big relative to the average energy content and might be relevant for biology and life. This motivated me to take a turn in my current research activities and started to do experiments. In 2003 I initiated an adventure in trying to set up a small lab in Barcelona. My goal is to investigate nonequilibrium fluctuations in small systems using single molecule experiments in biophysics. During the past few years I got the funding required to carry out such enterprise and I am currently working to accomplish this goal. At present (June 2007) I have my own lab equipped with the minimum instrumentation to synthesize single molecules (DNA, RNA and proteins) and an optical tweezers instrument to manipulate individual molecules.
The traditional view in biophysics is that physics can be useful to understand biology. I also sustain the contrary and believe that biology can be extremely useful to physics. Living systems have evolved for millions of years under very different non-equilibrium conditions. The research of the thermal behavior of biological matter may show an unprecedented richness of details that might have important consequences in the complex organization of living matter.
The research section presents a detailed description of some of these subjects.
Personal address
Dr. F. Ritort,
Professor of Condensed Matter Physics,
Small Biosystems Lab,
Departament de Fisica Fonamental,
Facultat de Fisica, Universitat de Barcelona
Diagonal 647, 08028 Barcelona (Spain).
Telf:0034-934035869
Fax:0034-934021149
Email: fritort(at)gmail.com and ritort(at)ffn.ub.es