Brief Vita

• Assistant Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy and Department of Mathematics, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville (2025-present)
• Acting Instructor and Washington Research Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Washington (2020-2025)
• Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Massachusetts Boston (2019-2020)
• Postdoctoral Researcher, Northwestern University (2016-2019)
• PhD, Physics, California Institute of Technology (2017)
• Master of Advanced Study (Part III), Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge (UK) (2011)
• BA, Physics, Mathematics, and the Integrated Science Program (2010)

Selected Honors

• Washington Research Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship award (2021-2024)
• First Place, 2019 Scientific Images Contest, Northwestern Science in Society (2019)
• Finalist in the GSNP student speaker award at the 2016 APS March Meeting (2016)
• National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (2010-2013)
• Graduated with Merit, University of Cambridge Part III Mathematics (2011)
• Outstanding Senior Thesis in Physics and Astronomy, Northwestern University (2010)
• Undergraduate Research Internship (academic year), Northwestern University MRSEC (2008-2010)
• Summer Research Grant, Northwestern University, Summer (2009)
• Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship (2009)
• Katherine L. Krieghbaum Scholarship, Northwestern University (2009)
• Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society (inducted as Junior) (2009)
• Sigma Pi Sigma Physics Honor Society (inducted as Junior) (2009)
• Best Junior in Physics, Northwestern University Physics Department (2009)
• Outstanding Achievement in Mathematics by a Junior, Northwestern University Mathematics Department (2009)

Research Areas

Zachary Nicolaou is a theoretical and computational physicist focusing on interdisciplinary phenomena in material and network systems. His research focuses on the emergence of complexity in matter, with particular emphasis on nonlinear dynamics, synchronization, pattern formation, and network dynamics in condensed matter systems and fluid mechanics. He utilizes and develops classical tools from applied mathematics and novel machine learning methods to discover and characterize the mechanisms behind novel complex dynamical phenomena. He is interested in applications and methodological developments of machine learning approaches, including data-driven system identification, Koopman, Boltzmann, and Liouville-von Neumann spectral-based methods, and neural networks for nonlinear coordinate transformations for the design of mechanical metamaterials and the characterization of disordered and glassy systems. Other topics of interest include symmetry concepts (chimera states, dimension reduction methods, and converse symmetry breaking), Floquet systems, topological acoustic band theories and band-gap design, and associated nonlinear phenomena such as gap solitons and novel resonances and bifurcations, as well as the kinetics of granular materials, glassy dynamics, and topological defects in driven and dissipative systems.

Selected Publications

• Z. G. Nicolaou, A. E. Motter, and F. Jiang, Metamaterials with Negative Compressibility Highlight Evolving Interpretations and Opportunities, Nat. Comm. 15, 8573 (2024).
• Z. G. Nicolaou and A. E. Motter, From a Point to a Torus: Unveiling Emergent Dynamics with Higher-order Bifurcations, SIAM News 57, 1 (2024).
• Z. G. Nicolaou and J. J. Bramburger, Complex localization mechanisms in networks of coupled oscillators: two case studies, Chaos 34, 013131 (2024).
• Z. G. Nicolaou, When Patterns Come to Life, Comment on “Unified representation of Life’s basic properties by a 3-species Stochastic Cubic Autocatalytic Reaction-Diffusion system of equations,” Phys. Life Rev. 47, 108 (2023).
• Z. G. Nicolaou, G. Guo, Y. Chen, S. L. Brunton, and J. N. Kutz, Data-driven discovery and extrapolation of parameterized pattern-forming dynamics, Phys. Rev. Research 5, L042017 (2023).
• Z. G. Nicolaou, S. B. Nicholson, A. E. Motter, and J. R. Green, Prevalence of multistability and nonstationarity in driven chemical networks, J. of Chem. Phys. 158, 225101 (2023).
• A. Kaptanoglu, L. Zhang, Z. G. Nicolaou, U. Fasel, and S. L.Brunton, Benchmarking sparse system identification with low-dimensional chaos, Nonlinear Dyn. 111, 13143–13164 (2023).
• A. Kaptanoglu, B. M. de Silva, U. Fasel, K. Kaheman, A. J. Goldschmidt, J. Callaham, C. B. Delahunt, Z. G. Nicolaou, K. Champion, J-C. Loiseau, J. N. Kutz, and S. L. Brunton, PySINDy: A comprehensive Python package for robust sparse system identification, J. Open Source Softw. 7, 3994 (2022).
• Z. G. Nicolaou, D. Case, E. B. van der Wee, M. M. Driscoll, and A. E. Motter, Heterogeneity-stabilized homogeneous states in driven media, Nat. Commun. 12, 4486 (2021).
• Z. G. Nicolaou and A. E. Motter, Anharmonic classical time crystals, Phys. Rev. Research 3, 023106 (2021).
• Z. G. Nicolaou, M. Sebek, I. Z. Kiss, and A. E. Motter, Coherent dynamics induced by uncorrelated noise, Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 094101 (2020).
• Z. G. Nicolaou, T. Nishikawa, S. B. Nicholson, J. R. Green, and A. E. Motter, Non-normality and nonmonotonic dynamics in complex reaction networks, Phys. Rev. Research 2, 043059 (2020).
• Z. G. Nicolaou, and A. E. Motter, Missing links as a source of variable constants in complex networks, Phys. Rev. Research 2, 043135(2020).
• Y. Zhang, Z. G. Nicolaou, J. D. Hart, R. Roy, and A. E. Motter, Critical Switching Behavior in Globally Attractive Chimeras, Phys. Rev. X 10, 011044 (2020).
• Z. G. Nicolaou, D. Eroglu, and A. E. Motter, Multifaceted dynamics of Janus oscillator networks, Phys. Rev. X 9, 011017 (2019).
• Z. G. Nicolaou, B. Xu, & Adilson E. Motter, Minimal scattering entanglement in one- dimensional trapped gases, Phys. Rev. A 99, 012316 (2019).
• Z. G. Nicolaou, Stability and instability of axisymmetric droplets in thermocapillary-driven thin films, Nonlinearity 31, 1009 (2018).
• Z. G. Nicolaou, H. Riecke, & A. E. Motter, Chimera States in Continuous Media: Existence and Distinctness, Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 244101 (2017).
• Z. G. Nicolaou, Symmetry and variational analyses of thin film partial differential equations, Caltech dissertation (2016).
• Z. G. Nicolaou and A. E. Motter, Longitudinal inverted compressibility in super-strained
• metamaterials, J. Stat. Phys. 151, 1162 (2013).
• Z. G. Nicolaou and A. E. Motter, Mechanical metamaterials with negative compressibility
• transitions, Nat. Mater. 11, 608 (2012).

Please check my Google Scholar profile for the full publication list.