Professor Mounir Maaloum
Professor Maaloum obtained his MS and PhD from university of Pierre & Marie Curie Paris VI, all in the field of physics of soft matter with a minor in theoretical physics of liquids. Dr. Maaloum’s doctoral research focused on molecular structure of smectic copolymer films and defects of lamellar stacking, under supervision of D. Ausserré and D. Chatenay. After graduation, he was granted EMBO postdoctoral fellowship and carried out research at European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL, Heidelberg), in Germany, where he worked, with H. Hörber and E. Karsenti, in the development of scanning tunnelling microscopy in order to resolve cytoskeleton filaments and bacteriophage structures. Back to France as an associate professor at university of Louis Pasteur, he carry out research at institute Charles Sadron, where he worked in the area of polymer physics and at biology-physics interface. He then went to Australia in 2002 as visiting scientist at university of Sydney and explored starch branched biopolymers systems. Back in Strasbourg as full professor of physics at university of Strasbourg he managed to set up his own research group « Physics and biophysics of Macromolecules at interfaces». In 2012, he joined SAMS group to develop a research program that focuses on the imagery and physics of supramolecular self-assembled systems and on the manipulation of single-molecule mechanics, especially on a single DNA. In 2014, he was promoted 1st class professor of physics at university of Strasbourg by the National University Council.
Area of expertise
- Physics of soft matter: polymers, colloids, surfactants.
- Physics at interface with biology: cytoskeleton filaments, membranes, nucleic acids (DNA, RNA), molecular motors.
- Scanning probe microscopy techniques (Scanning tunneling microscope STM, atomic force microscope AFM).