Hi, I’m Hudson. I am a scientist working at the fascinating interface between mechanics, physics and Biology. My work aims to understand how complex behaviors emerge in living and soft materials, using a combination of theory, simulations, and experiments. I am currently a postdoctoral associate at MIT in the group of Prof. Tal Cohen.

Research interests

Criticality in living systems

I received my PhD in solid mechanics from École Polytechnique under the supervision of Prof. Lev Truskinovsky. My research explored how biological system may operate near critical points – states where systems hover on the edge of instability, making them excquisitely sensitive to small perturbations. Like a jenga tower that’s just about to collapse, such systems can undergo large, sudden changes in response to tiny inputs. This critical behavior, long studied in physics, may offer living systems unique advantages in terms of adaptability, responsiveness, and information processing.

Mechanics of the cell

After completing my PhD, I began my first postdoctoral appointment at Collège de France in the group of Prof. Hervé Turlier. There, I developed mechanical models of the cell cortex — a thin, active layer that controls the shape and motion of cells. My work contributed to understanding how physical forces drive key biological processes such as cell division, motility, and tissue morphogenesis. I drew on concepts from continuum mechanics and active matter physics to link microscopic actomyosin dynamics to large-scale cellular deformations.

Fracture of soft solids

I am currently a postdoctoral associate at MIT, working under the guidance of Prof. Tal Cohen. My research focuses on understanding how soft materials—such as biological tissues, gels, and elastomers—fracture under tensile loads. In particular, I study how damage localizes and how cavities nucleate and grow in these materials, leading to failure. A key insight from my work is that fracture patterns in soft solids often arise from symmetry-breaking bifurcations, where a previously uniform deformation suddenly becomes unstable, giving rise to localized fracture modes.