Mikaela Iacobelli

Mikaela Iacobelli is an Italian mathematician working in kinetic theory and partial differential equations. She has been an Associate Professor of Mathematics at ETH Zurich since 2023.

Education and career

Iacobelli earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics in 2009 and a master's degree cum laude in mathematics in 2012, both from the Sapienza University of Rome.

She received a joint Ph.D. from Sapienza University of Rome and the École Polytechnique in 2015 under the supervision of Emanuele Caglioti and François Golse. Her thesis was titled Dynamics of large particle systems.

From 2015 to 2017, she was a research associate at the University of Cambridge. She was an assistant professor at Durham University from 2017 to 2019, and a titular professor at ETH Zurich from 2019 to 2023. In 2023, she was appointed associate professor at ETH Zurich.

Research

Iacobelli's research lies at the intersection of kinetic theory, plasma physics, statistical mechanics, and nonlinear partial differential equations. Her work studies the mathematical structures underlying singular limits, long-time dynamics, and degenerate problems.

Her research topics include Vlasov-type equations, quasineutral limits, kinetic Wasserstein distances, Landau damping, magnetic and electromagnetic plasma models, quantization of measures, and ultrafast diffusion.

Awards and honors 2015: L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science (French edition) 2021: Invited speaker at the International Congress on Mathematical Physics 2024: Awarded an SNSF Starting Grant for the project Challenges and Breakthroughs in the Mathematics of Plasmas (2026–2030) 2025: Bartolozzi Prize

Professional service Iacobelli is a member of the Committee for Women in Mathematics of the European Mathematical Society. She is also a member of the standing committee of European Women in Mathematics.