About me
I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics at ETH Zürich and the PI of the SNSF Starting Grant Challenges and Breakthroughs in the Mathematics of Plasmas. During the 2024–25 academic year, I was a von Neumann Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.
My research lies at the interface of kinetic theory, plasma physics, statistical mechanics, and nonlinear PDEs. Across these areas, I am interested in identifying the mathematical structures that make singular limits, long-time dynamics, and degenerate problems tractable.
Current directions in my group include Vlasov-type equations, quasineutral limits, kinetic Wasserstein distances, Landau damping and scattering, magnetic and electromagnetic plasma models, quantization of measures, and ultrafast diffusion.
Before joining ETH, I was an Assistant Professor at Durham University and a Research Associate at the University of 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.
News
PhD Defense
Antoine Gagnebin successfully defended his PhD thesis entitled "Landau damping for Vlasov-type equations", congratulations Antoine!
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.
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".