Shiling Liang

Research interests

stochastic thermodynamics, chemical reaction theory, biological physics

Professional Experiences

Nov 2024 - now ELBE Postdoctoral Fellow
Center for Systems Biology Dresden (CSBD) | Max Planck Institute for Physics of Complex Systems (PKS) | Cell Biology and Genetics (CBG), Dresden, Germany

Jan 2023 - May 2023 JSPS Fellow (Strategic Program)
Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST), Okinawa, Japan

Education

2020 - 2024 Ph.D. in Physics
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland

2018 - 2020 M.Sc. in Physics
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland

2014 - 2018 B.Sc. in Physics
Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
The University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom

Awards & Honours

2024 ELBE Postdoctoral Fellowship, Center for Systems Biology Dresden (CSBD)

2024 APS DBIO Travel Awards (declined due to visa issue)

2023 Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Strategic Fellowship

2022 Best Short Talk Award, 7th Beijing Soft Matter Workshop

Preprints

* Corresponding author

[10] Bao, R.* and Liang, S.*, 2024. Nonequilibrium Response Theory: From Precision Limits to Strong Perturbation. arXiv preprint, arXiv:2412.19602.

[9] Liang, S.*, De Los Rios, P. and Busiello, D. M.*, 2024. Thermodynamic Space of Chemical Reaction Networks. arXiv preprint, arXiv:2407.11498.

Publications

2025 [8] Liang, S.*, Ma, Y.-H.*, Busiello, D. M. and De Los Rios, P., 2025. Minimal Model for Carnot Efficiency at Maximum Power. , Phys. Rev. Lett. 134(2), 027101. (Featured in Phys.org, Interesting Engineering and South China Morning Post)

[7] Cao, Y.* and Liang, S.*, 2025. Stochastic thermodynamics for biological functions. Quantitative Biology, 13(1), p.e75.

2024

[6] Liang, S.*, De Los Rios, P. and Busiello, D. M.*, 2024. Thermodynamic Bounds on Symmetry Breaking in Linear and Catalytic Biochemical Systems. Phys. Rev. Lett. 132, 228402.

2023

[5] Liang, S., Pigolotti, S., 2023. Thermodynamic bounds on time-reversal asymmetry. Phys. Rev. E (Letter) 108, L062101.

2022 [4] Liang, S., Busiello, D. M*. and De Los Rios, P., 2022. Emergent thermophoretic behavior in chemical reaction systems. New Journal of Physics, 24(12), p.123006.

2021 [3] Liang, S., De Los Rios, P. and Busiello, D.M*., 2021. Dissipation-Driven Selection under Finite Diffusion: Hints from Equilibrium and Separation of Time Scales. Entropy, 23(8), p.1068.

[2] Busiello, D.M.*, Liang, S., Piazza, F. and De Los Rios, P., 2021. Dissipation-driven selection of states in non-equilibrium chemical networks. Communications Chemistry, 4(1), p.16.

[1] Dass, A.V., Georgelin, T., Westall, F., Foucher, F., De Los Rios, P., Busiello, D. M., Liang, S. and Piazza, F.*, 2021. Equilibrium and non-equilibrium furanose selection in the ribose isomerisation network. Nature communications, 12(1), p.2749.

Teaching and Supervision

Service

2022-now Founder and Organizer of Statistical Physics Youth Communications

2024-2025 Co-organizer of Swarma Nonequilibrium Statistical Physics Study Group

Reviewer

Invited Talks

2025 Thermodynamic Space for Chemical Reaction Networks, Autocatalysis in Reaction Networks Seminar, Online, Apr 2025

Introduction to Chemical Reaction Theory, OIST TSVP Program, Okinawa, Japan, Mar 2025

2024 Thermodynamic Constraints on Biological Processes, ELBE Symposium, Dresden, Germany, May 2024

2023 Thermodynamic cost of spatiotemporal symmetry breaking, LMU, Munich, Germany, Nov 2023

Thermodynamic cost of time-reversal symmetry breaking, MPI-PKS, Dresden, Germany, Nov 2023

Thermodynamic cost to break spatiotemporal symmetry, BICMR, Peking University, Beijing, China, Aug 2023

Why must life be out of equilibrium, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China, Aug 2023

From origins of life to thermodynamic bounds on symmetry breaking, Peking University, Beijing, China, Jul 2023

Thermodynamics on the origin and the present of life, ELSI, Tokyo, Japan, May 2023

Thermodynamics on the origin and the present of life, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan, May 2023

Symmetry breaking in the present and origin of life, USTC, Hefei, China (Online), Jan 2023

2022 Non-isothermal chemical reaction networks: hints to the origins of life, MISANU, Serbia (Online), Nov 2022

Schools, Workshops & Conferences

2025 DPG Spring Meeting, Regensburg, Germany, Mar. 2025

Computational and Physical Understanding of Biological Information Processing, OIST TSVP Program, Okinawa Japan, Mar. 2025

Physical Biology Circle Meeting 2025, GIMM, Lisbon, Portugal, Jan. 2025

2024 Frontiers in Non-equilibrium Physics 2024, YITP, Kyoto, Japan, July 2024

Information Processing, Noise, and Adaptation in Living Systems - Signal24, Dresden, Germany, March 2024

Modeling energy-consuming biomolecular processes, Lausanne, Switzerland, Jan. 2024

2023 StatPhys28, Tokyo, Japan, Aug. 2023

Molecular Origins of Life, Munich, Online, Jun. 2023

Workshop on Stochastic Thermodynamics - WOST IV, ICTP, Italy, May 2023

APS March Meeting, Online, Mar. 2023

2022 (Post)modern Thermodynamics School & Workshop, Luxembourg University, Luxembourg, Dec. 2022

School on Information, Noise, and Physics of Life, Niš, Serbia, Sep. 2022

7th Beijing Soft Matter Workshop, Beijing, China, Jul. 2022

Molecular Origins of Life, Munich, Germany, Jun. 2022

2021 14th International meeting on Thermodiffusion, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway, May 2021

2019 IX GEFENOL Summer School on Statistical Physics of Complex Systems, Universidad de Cantabria, Santander, Spain, Sep. 2019

Mathematics of Deep Learning, Zuse Institute Berlin, Berlin, Germany, Aug. 2019

Bad Honnef Physics School: Physics of Bacteria, Physikzentrum Bad Honnef, Germany, Aug. 2019

Hands-On Research in Complex Systems School, ICTP, Trieste, Italy, Jul. 2019

2017 Introduction to Complex Systems Summer School, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands, Jun. 2017

References

Prof. Paolo De Los Rios, paolo.delosrios@epfl.ch, Associate Professor, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland

Prof. Simone Pigolotti, simone.pigolotti@oist.jp, Professor, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST), Japan

Dr. Daniel Maria Busiello, busiello@pks.mpg.de, Project Leader, Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems (MPI-PKS), Germany