Dr. Yasmine Meroz

Yasmine Meroz holds a BSc in Physics and Mathematics, a MSc in Physics, and a PhD in Physical Chemistry all from Tel Aviv University. She completed a postdoc in condensed matter physics at the Weizmann Institute of Science, and then another postdoc in applied mathematics of biological systems at Harvard University. She joined the School of Plant Sciences and Food Security at Tel Aviv University in 2017. Her lab studies fundamental behavioral processes such as decision-making, collective behavior, entrainment, adaptation etc, using plant tropisms as a model system. The lab combines theory and experiment, adopting approaches from statistical physics and applied mathematics.

 

Education
2001 - 2004	BSc in Mathematics and Physics, Tel Aviv University
2004 - 2006	MSc in Physics, Tel Aviv University
2007 - 2011	PhD in Physical Chemistry, "Anomalous Diffusion in Biological Systems", Tel Aviv University
2012 - 2013	Postdoc, Condensed Matter Physics, Weizmann Institute of Science
2013 - 2017	Postdoc, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University
Academic Appointments
2017-present	Senior Lecturer; School of Plant Sciences and Food Security, Tel Aviv University

 

Our interdisciplinary lab focuses on physics of plant behavior. We combine classic tropic experiments with theory, adopting approaches from statistical physics and applied mathematics. We consider fundamental behavioral processes such as decision-making, collective behavior, memory phenomena and entrainment. Generally speaking, we aim to relate the observed macroscopic behavioral dynamics of plants to underlying microscopic processes, in the spirit of statistical physics.

Y. Meroz and B. Meade (2017)

Intermittent granular dynamics at a seismogenic plate boundary Phys. Rev. Lett., 119, 138501

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Y. Meroz, V. Ovchinnikov and M. Karplus (2017)

Coexisting origins of subdiffusion in internal dynamics of proteins

Phys. Rev. E, 95, 062403

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R. Bastien and Y. Meroz (2016)

The kinematics of plant nutation reveals a simple relation between curvature and the orientation of differential growth 

PLoS Comput Biol 12(12): e1005238 

* selected for cover of December 2016

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H.V. Prentice-Mott*, Y. Meroz*, A. Carlson, M.A. Levine, M.W. Davidson, D. Irmia, G. Charras,

L. Mahadevan and J.V. Shah (2015)      * equal contribution 

Directional memory arises from long-lived cytoskeletal asymmetries in polarized chemotactic cells

PNAS, 113(5), 1267-1272

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A. Taloni, Y. Meroz and A. Huerta (2015)

Collisional statistics and dynamics of 2D hard-disk systems: from fluid to solid

Phys. Rev. E, 92 (2), 022131

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Y. Meroz (2015)

Beyond experimental noise: analyzing single-molecule data of heterogeneous systems

Comment on “Extracting physics of life at the molecular level: A review of single-molecule data analyses” by W. Colomb and S.K. Sarkar

Physics of Life Reviews, 13, 146-7

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Y. Meroz, I.M. Sokolov (2015)

A toolbox for determining subdiffusive mechanisms

Physics Reports, 573(6), 1-29 

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S.D. Ha, J. Shi, Y. Meroz, L. Mahadevan and S. Ramanthan (2014)

Neuromimetic circuits with synaptic devices based on strongly correlated electron systems

Phys. Rev. Applied 2, 064003 

* selected for Editor’s Suggestion and for Physics magazine synopsis <link>

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Y. Meroz and R. Bastien (2014)

Stochastic processes in gravitropism

Frontiers in Plant Science, 5, 00674 

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Y. Meroz, Y. Oreg and Y. Imry (2014)

Memory effects in the electron glass

EPL 105(3), 37010     * chosen for EPL Highlights of 2014

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Y. Meroz, I.M. Sokolov and J. Klafter (2013)

Test for determining a subdiffusive model in ergodic systems from single trajectories

Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 090601 

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D. Campbell and Y. Meroz (2012) - chapter in book

The Fermi-Pasta-Ulam (FPU) problem: a path to complexity

In: Proceedings of the International School of Physics "E. Fermi" Course CLXXVI

Eds. G. Stanley and F. Mallamace (IOS Press, Amsterdam) 
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Y. Meroz , I.M. Sokolov  and J. Klafter (2011) 

Unequal twins: probability distributions do not determine everything

Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 260601 

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Y. Meroz, I.M. Sokolov and J. Klafter (2011)

Distribution of first passage times to specific targets on compactly explored fractal structures

Phys. Rev. E (Rapid Communication) 83, 020104 

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Y. Meroz, I.M. Sokolov and J. Klafter (2010)

Subdiffusion of Mixed Origins: When Ergodicity and Nonergodicity Coexist

Phys. Rev. E (Rapid Communication) 81, 010101

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Y. Meroz, I. Eliazar and J. Klafter (2009) 

Facilitated diffusion in a crowded environment: from kinetics to stochastic

Phys. A: Math. Theor. 42 434012 

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Y. Meroz and D. Horn (2007) 

Biological roles of specific peptides in enzymes

Proteins: Struct. and Func. 72(2): 606 

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V. Kunik, Y. Meroz, Z. Solan, B. Sandbank, U. Weingart, E. Ruppin and D. Horn (2007) 

Functional representation of enzymes by specific peptides

PLoS Comput Biol 3(8): e167