Gervais ChapuisClick here for a more complete biography
Studies at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ), Switzerland. After graduating in crystallography in 1966, he prepared his PhD thesis in the same institution under the direction of Prof.. A. Niggli which he obtained in 1972. For three years he continued his research at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in California in the laboratory of Prof. D. H. Templeton, a well-known specialist in the field of resonant scattering. Back in Switzerland, he joined the newly created Institute of Crystallography at the University of Lausanne under the direction of Prof.. D. Schwarzenbach. In 1991 he was appointed full professor and in 1999, director of the Institute of crystallography. In 2003, his unit was transferred to the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale in Lausanne (EPFL) where he was appointed professor.
G. Chapuis has chaired numerous committees in national and international organisations in the field of crystallography. In particular, he chaired the committee of aperiodic structures of the International Union of Crystallography (IUCr). He is also a member of the Education Committee of that organization. He also chaired the Swiss Society of Crystallography.
G. Chapuis is co-editor of the Journal Acta Crystallographica and participates in many committees for various readings of academic journals devoted to crystallography and solid state physics.
His research areas cover more specifically the theoretical and experimental study of aperiodic structures, especially incommensurate structures by diffraction and molecular dynamics. He is the author of over two hundred scientific papers published in international peer-reviewed journals. Moreover G. Chapuis is dedicated to the development of interactive teaching in crystallography using new communication technologies available on the Internet.
Daniel FavratDaniel Favrat got his Master degree in Mechanical Engineering from EPFL in 1972 and his PhD also from EPFL. He then spent 12 years in industrial research laboratories in Canada (Esso Canada) and Switzerland (CERAC: Centre Européen de Recherche Atlas Copco). From 1988 to 2013, he was full professor and director of the Industrial Energy Systems Laboratory (LENI) at EPFL. During that period he was successively director of the Institute of Energy and director of the Institute of Mechanical Engineering. From August 2013 he works at EPFL Energy Center first as director ad interim and now as director technologies.
His research fields include systemic analyses accounting for energy, environment and economics (so-called environomic optimisation) and advanced conversion systems for a more rational use of energy (heat pumps &ORC, engines, fuel cells, power plants, etc).
He is a member of the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences and of the National Academy of Technology in France. He has also an active participation in the World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO) as a member of the executive committee and vice-chair of the energy committee. He is associate editor of the journal "Energy" and of International Journal of thermodynamics. He is the author of several books on thermodynamics and energy systems analysis. He is also affiliate professor at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm.
César PulgarinProf. C. Pulgarin is Chemist from Lausanne University, Master in environmental chemistry from Geneva University, Ph D in synthesis bio-inspired of natural substances from Neuchâtel University. During his education he carried out several industrial trainings.
Since March 1989, he has been working at the EPFL where he is leader of the Advanced Oxidation Processes Group (GPAO) active in the development chemical, photochemical, electrochemical, ultrasonic processes, their coupling between them and with biological systems to degrade chemical and microbiological pollutants in water and air. He has an H index of 40 and he is the world most cited author in 1) TiO2 photo-assisted bacterial inactivation in water and 2) Coupling of photochemical and biological processes for pollutant degradation. He has been involved in ten African, South American and European international research projects. He has been Swiss representative in COST program 540.
Anna Carratala RipollesDuring my PhD, I mainly focused on characterizing the effect of environmental factors (namely temperature and sunlight) and disinfectants on the stability of human viral pathogens as contaminants of aquatic environments. In addition,I developed a novel source tracking tool to identify avian fecal contamination in environmental samples. Thanks to a research fellowship given by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology, I also had the opportunity to explore the diversity of marine viruses in Mediterranean coastal waters by genetic fingerprinting and by next generation sequencing. Later on, I became interested in the long-term effect of environmental stressors on virus communities, so I joined the LCE as a postdoc to investigate the adaptation of enteroviruses to ultraviolet radiation. For 4 years, I worked on developing UV-resistant viruses and characterizing their acquired phenotypic and genetic properties by combining directed evolution experiments, deep sequencing and population genetics. Out of the lab, I am passionate about nature, traveling and scuba diving.
