Berend SmitBerend Smit received an MSc in Chemical Engineering in 1987 and an MSc in Physics both from the Technical University in Delft (the Netherlands). He received in 1990 cum laude PhD in Chemistry from Utrecht University (the Netherlands). He was a (senior) Research Physicists at Shell Research from 1988-1997, Professor of Computational Chemistry at the University of Amsterdam (the Netherlands) 1997-2007.
In 2004 Berend Smit was elected Director of the European Center of Atomic and Molecular Computations (CECAM) Lyon France. Since 2007 he is Professor of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry at U.C. Berkeley and Faculty Chemist at Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Since 2014 he has been director of the Energy Center at EPFL.
Hritwick BanerjeeI'm currently working as a Ph.D. student in the Laboratory of Photonic Materials and Fiber Devices. My research interests span from the study of cancer cell deformations to the most recent advances in bio-assistive soft robotics, incorporating diverse fields such as mechanics of soft matter, deformable electronics and adaptive structures, bio-inspired design, smart materials, and flexible sensors. I am equally interested in the realm of sensors and architectures with the induction of hydrogel and polymer-based multifaceted material functions that conform to and create an intimate matching with soft and non-planar body surfaces thus offering intriguing opportunities in biology and medicine.
My long-term research interests lie at the intersection of Mechanics, Materials, Biology, and Medicine. Specifically, I am interested in understanding and design soft materials with unprecedented mechanical properties such as extremely tough and strong, ultra-sensitive to stimuli, programmable, biocompatible and bioactive to interface humans and machine and their intelligence. Also, my long arching research goal is to work in point-of-care (POC) diagnostics, low-cost medical device fabrication easily accessible to the common people from developing countries.
Simon Nessim HeneinBorn in 1973 and of Egyptian-Swiss nationality, Simon Henein grew up in Cairo. He obtained an engineering degree at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in 1996 and went on to complete his doctorate at the EPFL in 2000. In 2001, he published the book “Conception des guidages flexibles” which has become a reference in precision engineering. He then joined the Centre Suisse d’Electronique et Microtechnique (CSEM), Neuchatel, Switzerland, where he conceived and developed mechanisms for robotic, aerospace, medical and watchmaking applications. He pursued his research career at the Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen, Switzerland, where he developed instruments for the Swiss Light Source Synchrotron (SLS). Since November 1st, 2012, he is associate professor in microengineering at the EPFL, holder of the Patek Philippe Chair and director of the Micromechanical and horological design laboratory (Instant-Lab).
