Sonia Contera is a physicist, currently working as a Professor of Biological Physics, and Associate Head of the Department of Physics for ED&I at the University of Oxford.
Sonia’s work is on the mechanics of cells, tissues, proteins and membranes and she designs nanomaterials that mimic biological functions for bio/medical applications such as drug delivery or cell cultures.
Her work lies at the interface of physics, biology, and nanotechnology. She is an expert in atomic force microscopy of biological systems, and she has a special interest in the role of mechanics in biology. She is interested in the profound physical meaning of “biological shapes”, and the role of mechanics and non-equilibrium thermodynamics in bridging scales and the transmission of information in subcellular structures, cells, and tissues of living organisms.
Biography: Sonia is a Senior Fellow of Green Templeton College; was a Member of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Nanotechnology 2014-2016. In 2017 she was elected Chair of Scanning Probe Microscopy section of the Royal Microscopical Society and from 2018 she is a member of the Advisory Committee on Science and Innovation to the Andalusian Government (Spain). She is also a public speaker and writes often for the general public on scientific topics.
Sonia is the author of ‘Nano comes to life: How Nanotechnology Is Transforming Medicine and the Future of Biology’ which NuNano have read and reviewed: Book review: Nano Comes to Life by Sonia Contera — NuNano AFM Probes
Twitter: @SONIACONTERA
Website: https://conteralab.web.ox.ac.uk/home