We are delighted to announce the awardees of the second edition of the SwissMAP Junior Researcher Prize, recognizing important scientific achievements in Mathematics and Theoretical Physics. This prize, supported by G-Research, highlights groundbreaking contributions from early-career researchers in Switzerland.
Alessandro Giachetto: Alessandro is an algebraic geometer whose work lies at the intersection of enumerative geometry and mathematical physics. He studies recursive structures that govern the geometry of moduli spaces, with particular focus on cohomological field theories and their connections to integrable systems, topological recursion, and large-genus asymptotics. After completing his PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in Bonn, he has held research positions at Paris–Saclay and ETH Zürich.
Manuel Loparco: Manuel studies the formalism that lies at the foundation of statistical physics, particle physics and cosmology: Quantum Field Theory (QFT). His PhD thesis was focused on QFT in the context of cosmology, studying how simple consistency conditions constrain the space of possible QFTs in an expanding universe. During the end of his PhD, he shifted his focus towards strongly coupled QFTs. Many phenomena of nature are described by strongly coupled QFTs, from phase transitions to the inner workings of a proton. His current research goal is to develop new methods to formulate predictions in these settings, where full theoretical control is still lacking. He has defended his PhD in theoretical physics at EPFL under the supervision of Joao Penedones, and am now a postdoc at Università di Torino.
