Massimo Vergassola

{{short description|Italian physicist}}

{{Infobox scientist

| name = Massimo Vergassola

| nationality = Italian

| fields =Physics

| workplaces =University of California, San Diego

}}

Massimo Vergassola is an Italian physicist, who worked at the University of California, San Diego from 2013-2019. He is now a Professor at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris and Directeur de Recherche at CNRS.

He is Director of the ENS-PSL QBio initiative on Quantitative Biology, an initiative at the PariSanté Val-de-Grâce Campus.{{cite web |title=Massimo Vergassola |url=https://qbio.ens.psl.eu/en/people/massimo-vergassola |website=QBio |access-date=13 March 2023 |language=en}}

Vergassola uses physics to study the sense of smell and olfactory navigation in turbulent environments.{{cite journal |last1=Reddy |first1=Gautam |last2=Murthy |first2=Venkatesh N. |last3=Vergassola |first3=Massimo |title=Olfactory Sensing and Navigation in Turbulent Environments |journal=Annual Review of Condensed Matter Physics |date=10 March 2022 |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=191–213 |doi=10.1146/annurev-conmatphys-031720-032754 |bibcode=2022ARCMP..13..191R |s2cid=243966350 |url=https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev-conmatphys-031720-032754 |access-date=13 March 2023 |language=en |issn=1947-5454}} For example, he has shown the importance of a zig-zag search pattern to deal with odor plumes that have been broken into fragments due to turbulence.{{cite book |last1=Barwich |first1=A. S. |title=Smellosophy: What the Nose Tells the Mind |date=14 July 2020 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-24540-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S9HoDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA152 |language=en}}

In 2007, Vergassola proposed a strategy called infotaxis for use by odor-sensing robots. Infotaxis involves the creation of a mental model of where an odor source is likely to be, based on previously collected information. The robot moves in a direction that will maximize information to find the smell. Early versions of the model involved a mathematical quantity called Shannon entropy, which calculates unpredictability (high in unexplored directions and low in explored directions).{{cite journal |last1=Mackenzie |first1=Dana |title=How animals follow their nose |journal=Knowable Magazine |publisher=Annual Reviews |date=6 March 2023 |doi=10.1146/knowable-030623-4 |doi-access=free |url=https://knowablemagazine.org/article/living-world/2023/how-animals-follow-their-nose |access-date=13 March 2023 |language=en}}

Another area of interest in the physics of living systems, is the physics of embryonic development.

Vergassola is an Elected Fellow of the American Physical Society.{{Cite web |url=https://www.aps.org/programs/honors/fellowships/archive-all.cfm |title=Fellows |publisher=aps.org |accessdate=April 22, 2017}}{{Cite web |url=http://vergassolalab.ucsd.edu/people.html |title=Massimo Vergassola |publisher=ucsd.edu |accessdate=April 22, 2017}}{{cite journal |last1=Di Talia |first1=Stefano |last2=Vergassola |first2=Massimo |title=Waves in Embryonic Development |journal=Annual Review of Biophysics |date=9 May 2022 |volume=51 |issue=1 |pages=327–353 |doi=10.1146/annurev-biophys-111521-102500 |pmid=35119944 |s2cid=246556845 |url=https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-biophys-111521-102500 |language=en |issn=1936-122X|pmc=10122827 }}