Mathematical Physics and Stochastic Dynamics

Aljaz Godec has recently been appointed as full professor at the Institute of Physics at the University of Freiburg. Therefore, the Godec group moved to Freiburg on January 1, 2026.

New address
Mathematical Physics and Stochastic Dynamics
Institute of Physics, University of Freiburg
Hermann-Herder-Str. 3
79104 Freiburg, Germany

New website @Uni-Freiburg: https://uni-freiburg.de/math-phys/

We develop and apply the methods of mathematical physics and the theory of stochastic processes to study phenomena in biophysics. Our main research focus is currently the non-equilibrium statistical mechanics of single molecules. In particular, we aim at a trajectory-based description of macromolecular conformation dynamics as well as of their spatial transport, binding, and reactions. In our work we employ a combination of rigorous analysis corroborated by computer simulations.

For more details on particular projects, please visit our Research page

Link to publication list of the department

Press releases & research news

- All

Mechanical principle of allostery

July 29, 2025

A research team at the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Multidisciplinary Sciences has discovered a previously unknown mechanism that allows mechanical signals to travel across proteins. The lever-like principle makes allostery physically tangible and opens new perspectives for drug design and synthetic biology.

Thermodynamic transport inequality: Inferring dissipation from observed transport from single-molecule to bulk observables

August 09, 2024

Small biological systems are inherently stochastic due to thermal fluctuations. Inferring dissipation, that is, if and how far biological systems (or processes) are driven out of equilibrium, from fluctuating observations, which typically track only a small subset of degrees of freedom, remains a key challenge in modern non-equilibrium physics.