Ivailo Hartarsky graduated from lycée Louis le Grand, then began research on bootstrap percolation while studying at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. He went on to obtain his Ph.D. from Paris Dauphine University under the supervision of Cristina Toninelli in 2022 and conducted his postdoctoral research at TU Wien. As an associate researcher at Claude Bernard Lyon 1 University, the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) since 2024, Dr. Hartarsky’s work still focuses on bootstrap percolation, kinetically constrained models, and the interactions between them. More broadly, he is interested in cellular automata, interacting particle systems, and percolation. Some of his main contributions, such as sharp thresholds and universality, are covered in this book. He is also involved in extracurricular education of secondary school students in Bulgaria and international student mobility programs.
Cristina Toninelli received her master’s and Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the University of Rome La Sapienza, then turned to mathematics, focusing on problems at the intersection of probability and statistical mechanics. In 2006, she joined the CNRS as a researcher, working at the Probability and Statistics Laboratory of Sorbonne and Paris Cité University. In 2018, she became a CNRS research director and moved to Ceremade at Paris Dauphine University–PSL. Since 2022, she has also been a professor at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. Over her career, she has authored more than 50 publications in international journals, supervised numerous Ph.D. students, and led a European Research Council (ERC) grant team. She currently serves as the editor-in-chief of the Electronic Journal of Probability and was awarded the Marc Yor Prize by the Académie des Sciences for her contributions to kinetically constrained models.