Thomas Nowak

Professor, ENS Paris-Saclay
Co-PI, Cellular Computing Team
Head of Biology Group, Laboratoire Méthodes Formelles
Member, Institut Universitaire de France
Member, National Committee for Scientific Research

Openings

I’m looking for excellent candidates for postdoc, PhD, and intern positions. If you’re interested in doing research with me, please write me an email.

Research Interests

  • distributed algorithms
  • synthetic biology
  • mathematical modeling of microbiological systems
  • chemical reaction networks

Current Students and Post-Docs

  • Dylan Baumann, PhD student (co-supervised with Matthias Függer and Andreas Steininger)
  • Mariapia D’Urso, PhD student (co-supervised with Matthias Függer)
  • Dhrubajyoti Ghosh, PhD student
  • Alexandra Loudieres, PhD student (co-supervised with Matthias Függer)
  • Mélanie Pietri, PhD student (co-supervised with Sakina Bensalem, Matthias Függer, and Bruno Le Pioufle)
  • Kerian Thuillier, post-doc (co-supervised with Benedikt Bollig and Matthias Függer)
  • Zhuofan Xu, PhD student (co-supervised with Benedikt Bollig and Matthias Függer)
  • Paul Zeinaty, PhD student (co-supervised with Benedikt Bollig and Matthias Függer)

Events

Workshops:

  • CELLS 2022 (Computing among Cells) at DISC 2022, October 28, 2022, online
  • CELLS 2021 (Computing among Cells) at DISC 2021, October 8, 2021, online
  • CELLS 2020 (Computing among Cells) at DISC 2020, October 12, 2020, online
  • CELLS 2019 (Computing among Cells) at DISC 2019 on October 14, 2019, in Budapest
  • WENDY (Emergent Algorithms and Network Dynamics) on October 10-11, 2018, at Institut Henri Poincaré in Paris

Conferences:

  • SSS 2018 (PC member), PODC 2019 (Publication Chair), PODC 2020 (PC member), DISC 2020 (PC member), SAND 2023 (PC member), SIROCCO 2023 (PC member), PODC 2024 (PC member), ICDCN 2025 (PC member), SIROCCO 2025 (PC member), SSS 2025 (PC member), ISAAC 2025 (PC member), ICDCN 2026 (PC member)

Teaching

Publications

  1. Ferdowsi, A., Függer, M., Nowak, T., Schmid, U., and Drmota, M. 2025. Faithful dynamic timing analysis of digital circuits using continuous thresholded mode-switched ODEs. Nonlinear Analysis: Hybrid Systems 56, 101572. DOI
  2. Cravo, F., Prakash, G., Függer, M., and Nowak, T. 2025. MobsPy: A programming language for biochemical reaction networks. PLOS Computational Biology 21, 5, e1013024. DOI
  3. Pujar, A., Pathania, A., Hopper, C., et al. 2024. Phage-mediated intercellular CRISPRi for biocomputation in bacterial consortia. Nucleic Acids Research, gkae1256. DOI
  4. Függer, M., Nowak, T., and Rybicki, J. 2024. Majority Consensus Thresholds in Competitive Lotka-Volterra Populations. Proceedings of the 43rd ACM Symposium on Principles of Distributed Computing, Association for Computing Machinery, 76–86. DOI
  5. Cravo, F., Függer, M., and Nowak, T. 2024. An Allee-based distributed algorithm for microbial whole-cell sensors. npj Systems Biology and Applications 10, 43. DOI
  6. Nowak, T., Schmid, U., and Winkler, K. 2024. Topological Characterization of Consensus in Distributed Systems. Journal of the ACM 71, 6, 39:1–39:48. DOI
  7. Xu, Z., Bollig, B., Függer, M., and Nowak, T. 2024. Permutation Equivariant Deep Reinforcement Learning for Multi-Armed Bandit. 2024 IEEE 36th International Conference on Tools with Artificial Intelligence (ICTAI), 975–983. DOI
  8. Ferdowsi, A., Függer, M., Nowak, T., and Schmid, U. 2023. Continuity of Thresholded Mode-Switched ODEs and Digital Circuit Delay Models. Proceedings of the 26th ACM International Conference on Hybrid Systems: Computation and Control (HSCC). DOI
  9. Attiya, H., Castañeda, A., and Nowak, T. 2023. Topological Characterization of Task Solvability in General Models of Computation. In: Proceedings of the 37th International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC 2023). Schloss Dagstuhl–Leibniz-Zentrum fuer Informatik, Dagstuhl, 5:1–5:21. DOI
  10. Pathania, A., Hopper, C., Pandi, A., Függer, M., Nowak, T., and Kushwaha, M. 2022. A synthetic communication system uncovers extracellular immunity that self-limits bacteriophage transmission. bioRxiv. DOI
  11. Cravo, F., Függer, M., Nowak, T., and Prakash, G. 2022. MobsPy: A Meta-Species Language for Chemical Reaction Networks. Computational Methods in Systems Biology, Springer International Publishing, 277–285. DOI
  12. Cravo, F. and Nowak, T. 2022. Stochastic Multi-Distribution Modeling of Inter-Contact Times. In: Proceedings of the 2022 International Conference on Information Networking (ICOIN 2022). IEEE, New York, 220–225. DOI
  13. Függer, M., Nowak, T., and Schwarz, M. 2021. Tight Bounds for Asymptotic and Approximate Consensus. Journal of the ACM (JACM). DOI
  14. Cho, D.-J., Függer, M., Hopper, C., Kushwaha, M., Nowak, T., and Soubeyran, Q. 2021. Distributed computation with continual population growth. Distributed Computing 35, 6, 547–569. DOI
  15. Merlet, G., Nowak, T., and Sergeev, S. 2021. On the tightness of bounds for transients of weak CSR expansions and periodicity transients of critical rows and columns of tropical matrix powers. Linear and Multilinear Algebra 70, 19, 4320–4350. DOI
  16. Kennedy-Cochran-Patrick, A., Merlet, G., Nowak, T., and Sergeev, S. 2021. New bounds on the periodicity transient of the powers of a tropical matrix: Using cyclicity and factor rank. Linear Algebra and Its Applications 811, 279–309. DOI
  17. Burman, J., Chen, H.-L., Chen, H.-P., et al. 2021. Time-Optimal Self-Stabilizing Leader Election in Population Protocols . In: Proceedings of the 41st ACM Symposium on Distributed Computing (PODC 2021). ACM, New York, 33–44. DOI
  18. Függer, M., Kushwaha, M., and Nowak, T. 2020. Digital Circuit Design for Biological and Silicon Computers. In: V. Singh, ed., Advances in Synthetic Biology. Springer, Heidelberg, 153–171. DOI
  19. Függer, M., Najvirt, R., Nowak, T., and Schmid, U. 2020. A Faithful Binary Circuit Model. IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems 39, 10, 2784–2797. DOI
  20. Függer, M., Nowak, T., and Winkler, K. 2020. On the radius of nonsplit graphs and information dissemination in dynamic networks. Discrete Applied Mathematics 282, 257–264. DOI
  21. Cho, D.-J., Függer, M., Hopper, C., Kushwaha, M., Nowak, T., and Soubeyran, Q. 2020. Distributed Computation with Continual Population Growth. 34th International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC), Schloss Dagstuhl–Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik, 7:1–7:17. DOI
  22. Xu, C., Beauquier, J., Burman, J., Kutten, S., and Nowak, T. 2020. Data collection in population protocols with non-uniformly random scheduler. Theoretical Computer Science 806, 516–530. DOI
  23. Bakura, S.A., Lambert, A., and Nowak, T. 2020. Clock Synchronization with Exponential Smoothing for Dynamic Networks , In: Proceedings of the 54th Annual Conference on Information Sciences and Systems (CISS 2020). IEEE, New York. DOI
  24. Maier, J., Függer, M., Nowak, T., and Schmid, U. 2019. Transistor-Level Analysis of Dynamic Delay Models. 25th IEEE International Symposium on Asynchronous Circuits and Systems (ASYNC), 76–85. DOI
  25. Nowak, T., Schmid, U., and Winkler, K. 2019. Topological Characterization of Consensus under General Message Adversaries. In: Proceedings of the 39th ACM Symposium on Distributed Computing (PODC 2019). ACM, New York, 218–227. DOI
  26. Nowak, T. and Rybicki, J. 2019. Byzantine Approximate Agreement on Graphs. In: Proceedings of the 33rd International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC 2019). Schloss Dagstuhl–Leibniz-Zentrum fuer Informatik, Dagstuhl, 29:1–29:17. DOI
  27. Függer, M., Maier, J., Najvirt, R., Nowak, T., and Schmid, U. 2018. A Faithful Binary Circuit Model with Adversarial Noise. Design, Automation & Test in Europe (DATE), IEEE, 1327–1332. DOI
  28. Függer, M., Nowak, T., and Schwarz, M. 2018. Tight Bounds for Asymptotic and Approximate Consensus. ACM Symposium on Principles of Distributed Computing (PODC), ACM, 325–334. DOI
  29. Függer, M. and Nowak, T. 2018. Fast Multidimensional Asymptotic and Approximate Consensus. 32nd International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC), 27:1–27:15. DOI
  30. Han, C.-Y., Nowak, T., and Lambert, A. 2018. Pulse Synchronization for Vehicular Networks. In: Proceedings of the 2018 IEEE Intelligent Vehicle Symposium (IV 2018). IEEE, New York, 1125–1130. DOI
  31. Charron-Bost, B., Függer, M., and Nowak, T. 2017. New transience bounds for max-plus linear systems. Discrete Applied Mathematics 219, 83–99. DOI
  32. Függer, M., Nowak, T., and Schwarz, M. 2017. Brief Announcement: Lower Bounds for Asymptotic Consensus in Dynamic Networks. 31st International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC), 51:1–51:3. DOI
  33. Beauquier, J., Burman, J., Kutten, S., Nowak, T., and Xu, C. 2017. Data Collection in Population Protocols with Non-uniformly Random Scheduler. In: Proceedings of the 13th International Symposium on Algorithms and Experiments for Wireless Sensor Networks (ALGOSENSORS 2017). Springer, Heidelberg, 13–25. DOI
  34. Charron-Bost, B., Függer, M., and Nowak, T. 2016. Multidimensional Asymptotic Consensus in Dynamic Networks. CoRR abs/1611.02496. DOI
  35. Függer, M., Nowak, T., and Schmid, U. 2016. Unfaithful Glitch Propagation in Existing Binary Circuit Models. IEEE Transactions on Computers 65, 3, 964–978. DOI
  36. Charron-Bost, B., Függer, M., and Nowak, T. 2016. Fast, Robust, Quantizable Approximate Consensus. 43rd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP), 137:1–137:14. DOI
  37. Függer, M., Nowak, T., and Charron-Bost, B. 2015. Diffusive clock synchronization in highly dynamic networks. 2015 49th Annual Conference on Information Sciences and Systems (CISS), 1–6. DOI
  38. Függer, M., Najvirt, R., Nowak, T., and Schmid, U. 2015. Towards Binary Circuit Models That Faithfully Capture Physical Solvability. Design, Automation & Test in Europe (DATE), 1455–1460. DOI
  39. Charron-Bost, B., Függer, M., and Nowak, T. 2015. Approximate Consensus in Highly Dynamic Networks: The Role of Averaging Algorithms. 42nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP), 528–539. DOI
  40. Najvirt, R., Függer, M., Nowak, T., Schmid, U., Hofbauer, M., and Schweiger, K. 2015. Experimental Validation of a Faithful Binary Circuit Model. Proceedings of the 25th Edition on Great Lakes Symposium on VLSI (GLSVLSI), ACM, 355–360. DOI
  41. Függer, M., Kößler, A., Nowak, T., Schmid, U., and Zeiner, M. 2015. The effect of forgetting on the performance of a synchronizer. Performance Evaluation 93, 1–16. DOI
  42. Nowak, T. 2015. Asymptotic Consensus Without Self-Confidence. In: Proceedings of the 54th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC 2015). IEEE, New York, 4133–4138. DOI
  43. Bouillard, A. and Nowak, T. 2015. Fast Symbolic Computation of the Worst-Case Delay in Tandem Networks and Applications. Performance Evaluation 91, 270–285. DOI
  44. Függer, M., Kößler, A., Nowak, T., Schmid, U., and Zeiner, M. 2014. The Effect of Forgetting on the Performance of a Synchronizer. Algorithms for Sensor Systems, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 185–200. DOI
  45. Nowak, T. and Charron-Bost, B. 2014. General Transience Bounds in Tropical Linear Algebra via Nachtigall Decomposition. In: G.K. Litvinov and S.N. Sergeev, eds., Tropical and Idempotent Mathematics. American Mathematical Society, Providence, 277–289. DOI
  46. Merlet, G., Nowak, T., Schneider, H., and Sergeev, S. 2014. Generalizations of bounds on the index of convergence to weighted digraphs. Discrete Applied Mathematics 178, 121–134. DOI
  47. Merlet, G., Nowak, T., Schneider, H., and Sergeev, S. 2014. Generalizations of Bounds on the Index of Convergence to Weighted Digraphs. In: Proceedings of the 53rd IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC 2014). IEEE, New York, 1594–1599. DOI
  48. Merlet, G., Nowak, T., and Sergeev, S. 2014. Weak CSR expansions and transience bounds in max-plus algebra. Linear Algebra and Its Applications 461, 163–199. DOI
  49. Nowak, T., Függer, M., and Kößler, A. 2013. On the performance of a retransmission-based synchronizer. Theoretical Computer Science 509, 25–39. DOI
  50. Függer, M., Nowak, T., and Schmid, U. 2013. Unfaithful Glitch Propagation in Existing Binary Circuit Models. 2013 IEEE 19th International Symposium on Asynchronous Circuits and Systems (ASYNC), 191–199. DOI
  51. Charron-Bost, B., Függer, M., and Nowak, T. 2013. Transience Bounds for Distributed Algorithms. Formal Modeling and Analysis of Timed Systems (FORMATS), Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 77–90. DOI
  52. Függer, M., Kößler, A., Nowak, T., and Zeiner, M. 2012. Brief Announcement: The Degrading Effect of Forgetting on a Synchronizer. International Symposium on Stabilization, Safety, and Security of Distributed Systems (SSS), Springer, 90–91. DOI
  53. Nowak, T., Függer, M., and Kößler, A. 2011. On the Performance of a Retransmission-Based Synchronizer. Structural Information and Communication Complexity - 18th International Colloquium (SIROCCO), Springer, 234–245. DOI

Theses

  • Transient Behavior of Distributed Algorithms and Digital Circuit Models, PhD thesis, École polytechnique, 2014.
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  • Topology in Distributed Computing, Master's thesis, Vienna University of Technology, 2010.
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  • Implementation and Evaluation of a Support Vector Machine on an 8-bit Microcontroller, Bachelor's thesis, Vienna University of Technology, 2008.
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Contact

Thomas Nowak
Laboratoire Méthodes Formelles
ENS Paris-Saclay
Room 2S57
4, avenue des Sciences
91190 Gif-sur-Yvette
France

Phone: +33 1 81 87 54 31
Email: thomas@thomasnowak.net
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