John BotsisJohn (Ioannis) Botsis obtained his diplôme in civil engineering at the University of Patras, Greece in 1979. He continued his education at Case Institute of Technology in Cleveland Ohio/USA, where he received his MS and Ph.D. in 1984. After two years at the research center for national defense in Athens he was nominated assistant professor at the University of Illinois in Chicago, associate in 1991 and full professor in 1995. In 1996, he was nominated professor of solids and structural mechanics at the EPFL. At EPFL he teaches mechanics of structures and mechanics of continuous media´ at the bachelors level and Fracture mechanics at the masters and doctoral levels. His research covers the mechanics of solids and structures, fracture mechanics and micromechanics of polymers, metals and their composites as well as biomechanics. He is also actively involved in full-filed optical methods for surface strain measurements as well as internal strain measurements using fiber Bragg grating sensors, aimed at characterizing micromechanics of fracture, residual strains and strain distribution in composite laminates for structural monitoring. Funding for his research comes from the Swiss National Science Foundation, State Secretariat for Education and Research and Swiss industry. He retired on February 28, 2020.
Sandrine GerberSandrine Gerber studied chemistry at the "Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Paris" in France, where she obtained a diploma of chemical engineer in 1993. The same year she obtained a DEA (Master degree) of organic chemistry at the University Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris VI, France). From 1993 to 1996 she did a PhD in organic chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Jean-Pierre Genêt at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Paris. In 1996, she moved to University of Lausanne for a post-doctoral stay under the supervision of Prof. Pierre Vogel. In 1998, she was appointed Maître-Assistante at the Institute of Organic Chemistry in the University of Lausanne. In 2003, she obtained the habilitation to direct research from the University Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris VI, France). The same year, she was appointed scientific adjunct at the EPFL and senior scientist (Maître d'Enseignement et de Recherche) in 2006. In December 2014, she was promoted to titular professor. Since September 2007, Sandrine Gerber is deputy to the director of the Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering (ISIC). She is also member of the Board of Directors of the Swiss Chemical Society. Since 2007, Sandrine Gerber is part-time lecturer at the university of Fribourg. She was awarded the Prize Eugene Schueller in 1997, the Prize Dufour for prospective organic chemistry in 2005 and the Werner Prize 2010. She also received a special mention in recognition of exceptional quality of pedagogic competencies in the teaching of basic sciences, given by the Direction of the School of Biology and Medicine from the University of Lausanne, in 2013. In October 2018, she will receive the Prize for Excellence in Teaching from the section of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering.
Christian EnzChristian C. Enz (M84, S'12) received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the EPFL in 1984 and 1989 respectively. From 1984 to 1989 he was research assistant at the EPFL, working in the field of micro-power analog IC design. In 1989 he was one of the founders of Smart Silicon Systems S.A. (S3), where he developed several low-noise and low-power ICs, mainly for high energy physics applications. From 1992 to 1997, he was an Assistant Professor at EPFL, working in the field of low-power analog CMOS and BiCMOS IC design and device modeling. From 1997 to 1999, he was Principal Senior Engineer at Conexant (formerly Rockwell Semiconductor Systems), Newport Beach, CA, where he was responsible for the modeling and characterization of MOS transistors for the design of RF CMOS circuits. In 1999, he joined the Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM) where he launched and lead the RF and Analog IC Design group. In 2000, he was promoted Vice President, heading the Microelectronics Department, which became the Integrated and Wireless Systems Division in 2009. He joined the EPFL as full professor in 2013, where he is currently the director of the Institute of Microengineering (IMT) and head of the Integrated Circuits Laboratory (ICLAB).He is lecturing and supervising undergraduate and graduate students in the field of Analog and RF IC Design at EPFL. His technical interests and expertise are in the field of very low-power analog and RF IC design, semiconductor device modeling, and inexact and error tolerant circuits and systems.He has published more than 200 scientific papers and has contributed to numerous conference presentations and advanced engineering courses. Together with E. Vittoz and F. Krummenacher he is one of the developer of the EKV MOS transistor model and the author of the book "Charge-Based MOS Transistor Modeling - The EKV Model for Low-Power and RF IC Design" (Wiley, 2006). He has been member of several technical program committees, including the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) and European Solid-State Circuits Conference (ESSCIRC). He has served as a vice-chair for the 2000 International Symposium on Low Power Electronics and Design (ISLPED), exhibit chair for the 2000 International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS) and chair of the technical program committee for the 2006 European Solid-State Circuits Conference (ESSCIRC). Since 2012 he has been elected as member of the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society (SSCS) Administrative Commmittee (AdCom). He is also Chair of the IEEE SSCS Chapter of Switzerland.
Johan AuwerxJohan Auwerx is Professor at the École Polytechnique Fédérale in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he occupies the Nestle Chair in Energy Metabolism. Dr. Auwerx has been using molecular physiology and systems genetics to understand metabolism in health, aging and disease. Much of his work focused on understanding how diet, exercise and hormones control metabolism through changing the expression of genes by altering the activity of transcription factors and their associated cofactors. His work was instrumental for the development of agonists of nuclear receptors - a particular class of transcription factors - into drugs, which now are used to treat high blood lipid levels, fatty liver, and type 2 diabetes. Dr. Auwerx was amongst the first to recognize that transcriptional cofactors, which fine-tune the activity of transcription factors, act as energy sensors/effectors that influence metabolic homeostasis. His research validated these cofactors as novel targets to treat metabolic diseases, and spurred the clinical use of natural compounds, such as resveratrol, as modulators of these cofactor pathways.
Johan Auwerx was elected as a member of EMBO in 2003 and is the recipient of a dozen of international scientific prizes, including the Danone International Nutrition Award, the Oskar Minkowski Prize, and the Morgagni Gold Medal. His work is highly cited by his peers with a h-factor of over 100. He is an editorial board member of several journals, including Cell Metabolism, Molecular Systems Biology, The EMBO Journal, Journal of Cell Biology, Cell, and Science. Dr. Auwerx co-founded a handful of biotech companies, including Carex, PhytoDia, and most recently Mitobridge, and has served on several scientific advisory boards.
Dr. Auwerx received both his MD and PhD in Molecular Endocrinology at the Katholieke Universiteit in Leuven, Belgium. He was a post-doctoral research fellow in the Departments of Medicine and Genetics of the University of Washington in Seattle.
