Giovanni Zocchi

Giovanni Zocchi studied undergraduate Physics at the Universita’ di Pisa and Scuola Normale Superiore in Italy. He obtained his Ph. D. in Physics from the University of Chicago in 1990, working on nonlinear dynamics and turbulence under the direction of Albert Libchaber. After a postdoctoral stay at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, France (1990 – 1993) he joined the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark (1994 – 1999), where he changed his field of research to biological physics. He moved to UCLA in 1999, where he is currently Professor of Physics. The focus of the Zocchi Lab is mechano-chemical coupling in enzymes. The group pioneered the artificial mechanical control of enzymes. For the invention of nano-rheology, Professor Zocchi was awarded the 2017 Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology (theory).