Dynamical Heterogeneities in Glasses, Colloids, and Granular Media

Most of the solid materials we use in everyday life, from plastics to cosmetic gels exist under a non-crystalline, amorphous form: they are glasses. Yet, we are still seeking a fundamental explanation as to what glasses really are and to why they form. In this book, we survey the most recent theoretical and experimental research dealing with glassy physics, from molecular to colloidal glasses and granular media. Leading experts in this field present broad and original perspectives on one of the deepest mysteries of condensed matter physics, with an emphasis on the key role played by heterogeneities in the dynamics of glassiness.

Ludovic Berthier took his PhD in theoretical physics in 2001 at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Lyon, France, for which he was awarded the St Gobain prize from the French Physical Society. He became a Marie Curie Fellow at Oxford University till 2003, and became CNRS researcher at the University of Montpellier, France, where he works on the statistical mechanics of disordered materials, nonequilibrium systems and soft matter. In 2007, he was a visiting scientist at the James Franck Institute of the University of Chicago, US, and was awarded the Bronze medal of CNRS.

Giulio Biroli is a researcher at the Institute of Theoretical Physics of CEA Saclay. He earned his undergraduate degree in nuclear engineering from Politecnico of Milano in 1997. He took his PhD in theoretical physics in 2000 from Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris and then spent two years at Rutgers University as a postdoctoral fellow. He joined CEA in 2002. His research is on glassy systems, out of equilibrium dynamics, disordered systems and strongly correlated quantum systems. He was given the Young Scientist award in statistical physics 2007 by IUPAP.

Luca Cipelletti earned a PhD in physics from University of Milan, working on original static light scattering apparatuses. He spent two years as a NASA-sponsored postdoc in the group of D.A. Weitz (University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University), developing a dynamic light scattering apparatus for microgravity experiments on colloidal gels and glasses onboard the International Space Agency. Since 2000, he has been a faculty member of University Montpellier 2, France, where he studies the slow dynamics of glassy and jammed soft matter. L. Cipelletti was awarded membership of the Institut Universitaire de France in 2003. He is currently Professor at University Montpellier 2.


Jean-Philippe Bouchaud graduated from the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, where he also obtained his PhD in physics in 1985. He was then appointed by the CNRS until 1992. After a year spent in the Cavendish Laboratory (Cambridge), he joined the Service de Physique de l'Etat Condense (CEA-Saclay), where he worked on the dynamics of glassy systems and on granular media. Although he keeps a strong focus for these topics, he became interested in economics and theoretical finance in 1991. His work in finance includes extreme risk models, agent based simulations, market microstructure and price formation. He founded the company Science & Finance in 1994 that merged with Capital Fund Management (CFM) in 2000. He is now the President and Head of Research at CFM, and professor at Ecole Polytechnique since 2008. He was awarded the IBM young scientist prize in 1990 and the CNRS Silver Medal in 1996.

Wim van Saarloos is presently director of the FOM foundation. After earning a PhD in theoretical physics at Leiden University in 1982, he worked for 8 years at AT&T Bell Laboratories in the USA as a member of staff in the Materials Physics department. His research focused on pattern formation in crystal growth and convection systems. In 1991 he became a full professor at the Institute Lorentz for theoretical physics at Leiden University. His interests then shifted to front propagation and soft matter theory, and, more recently, to granular media. He also founded the Lorentz Center, an international workshop center in the sciences and was for 12 years its director. In 2009, he was appointed director of the FOM foundation. Van Saarloos is a fellow of the American Physical Society, member of the Royal Dutch Academy KNAW, and recipient of the Physica Prize; he received a royal decoration for founding the Lorentz Center.