About me
I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics at ETH Zürich and, during the 2024–25 academic year, was a von Neumann Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. Before joining ETH I held faculty positions at Durham University and a research fellowship in Cambridge. I completed my undergraduate studies at Sapienza University of Rome and obtained a joint PhD in Mathematics from Sapienza and École Polytechnique in Paris.
My work lies at the interface of analysis, kinetic theory and statistical mechanics: I study partial differential equations that model the collective behaviour of many-particle systems, with a focus on Vlasov-type plasmas and gravitational dynamics. Current projects range from quasineutral and singular-limit problems for Vlasov–type systems to quantization of measures, ultrafast diffusion, and gradient-flow structures that link microscopic particle models to macroscopic fluid descriptions.
News
News Honours & awards
Mikaela Iacobelli has been awarded the Giuseppe Bartolozzi Prize: announcement Unione Matematica Italiana
New preprints:
- From relativistic Vlasov-Maxwell to electron-MHD in the quasineutral regime in collaboration with A. Gagnebin, A. Rege, S. Rossi.
- Exponential convergence for ultrafast diffusion equations with log-concave weights in collaboration with M. Fathi.
- Propagation of Velocity Moments for the Magnetized Vlasov-Poisson System with Space-Time Dependent Magnetic Fields in collaboration with I. Ben-Porat, A. Gagnebin, J. Junné.
New accepted papers:
- On the stability of vacuum in the screened Vlasov-Poisson equation
in collaboration with S. Rossi and K. Widmayer, J. Lond. Math. Soc. (2) 113 (2026), no. 1, Paper No. e70426. - Scattering problem for Vlasov-type equations on the d-dimensional torus with Gevrey data in collaboration with D. Benedetto, E. Caglioti, A. Gagnebin, S. Rossi, to appear on Annales de l’Institut Henri Poincaré C- Analyse non linéaire.
Conference organisation:
- April 2026: Swiss Mathematical Society Doctoral Day.
New group member:
Welcome to new group member Marco di Marco, who starts is postdoctoral position in February 2026!
Co-organized seminars
Contact information
Postal address
ETH Zurich Prof. Dr. Mikaela Iacobelli Department of Mathematics Group 5 HG G 62.2 Rämistrasse 101 8092 Zurich SwitzerlandContact data
+41 44 632 5968 https://people.math.ethz.ch/~imikaelaAssistant
Alessandra Naldi Windler +41 44 632 3684For thesis supervision and recommendation letters, please see "For Students".