Nava SetterNava Setter completed MSc in Civil Engineering in the Technion (Israel) and PhD in Solid State Science in Penn. State University (USA) (1980). After post-doctoral work at the Universities of Oxford (UK) and Geneva (Switzerland), she joined an R&D institute in Haifa (Israel) where she became the head of the Electronic Ceramics Lab (1988). She began her affiliation with EPFL in 1989 as the Director of the Ceramics Laboratory, becoming Full Professor of Materials Science and Engineering in 1992. She had been Head of the Materials Department in the past and more recently has served as the Director of the Doctoral School for Materials.
Research at the Ceramics Laboratory, which Nava Setter directs, concerns the science and technology of functional ceramics focusing on piezoelectric and related materials: ferroelectrics, dielectrics, pyroelectrics and also ferromagnetics. The work includes fundamental and applied research and covers the various scales from the atoms to the final devices. Emphasis is given to micro- and nano-fabrication technology with ceramics and coupled theoretical and experimental studies of the functioning of ferroelectrics.
Her own research interests include ferroelectrics and piezoelectrics: in particular the effects of interfaces, finite-size and domain-wall phenomena, as well as structure-property relations and the pursuit of new applications. The leading thread in her work over the years has been the demonstration of how basic or fundamental concepts in materials - particularly ferroelectrics - can be utilized in a new way and/or in new types of devices. She has published over 450 scientific and technical papers.
Nava Setter is a Fellow of the Swiss Academy of Technical Sciences, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), and the World Academy of Ceramics. Among the awards she received are the Swiss-Korea Research Award, the ISIF outstanding achievement award, and the Ferroelectrics-IEEE recognition award. In 2010 her research was recognized by the European Union by the award of an ERC Advanced Investigator Grant. Recently she received the IEEE-UFFC Achievement Award (2011),the W.R. Buessem Award(2011), the Robert S. Sosman Award Lecture (American Ceramics Society) (2013), and the American Vacuum Society Recognition for Excellence in Leadership (2013).
Yves WeinandBiography
Architect and civil engineer, Prof. Dr. Yves Weinand is one of the most recognised researchers in the field of contemporary wood construction. Founder of the Bureau d'Etude Weinand, he has, since 1996, designed and worked on many emblematic wooden buildings, such as the Saint Loup Chapel, the new Vaudois Parliament or, more recently, the Timber Pavilion of Vidy in Lausanne. His fundamental research questions the technical and static possibilities of wooden materials. The interdisciplinary exploration carried out at the EPFL's Laboratory for Timber Constructions (Ibois), of which he is director, concerns wood in all its aspects, from round wood to manufactured wood. The recent research carried out at Ibois on free structures with wood-wood connections (without screw nor glue) has been the subject of several technological transfers, and stands as tangible proof of new possibilities for wood construction. Yves Weinand is currently working on a large-scale project for a hall for the head office of a joinery in Luxembourg, consisting of a succession of arches with spans of 22.5 to 53.7m, entirely assembled in wood ). Through new innovative approaches, the ambition of his research is to develop a new generation of renewable and ecological wooden construction.He is regularly invited to present his work at international symposia on timber construction.
Fields of expertise
Architectural designTimber structuresDigital FabricationRobotic AssemblyStructural Wood mechanicsIntegrally Attached Timber plate structures
Distinctions
2012 Grand Prix d'Architecture de Wallonie
2014 Best Paper Award, Advances in Architectural Geometry conference. (IBOIS team)
2017 Medal for Research and Technique by the Academy of Architecture. 2018 Mention Régionale, Prix Lignum for the Timber Pavilion of Vidy-Lausanne
2019 "Disctinction Bois 2019" for the Nouveau Parlement vaudois.2019 Grand Prix d'Architecture de Wallonie____________________________________________________________________________
Selected publications
Les Cahiers de l'Ibois/ Ibois Notebooks 1, F. Fromonot, S. Berthier, Y. Rocher, publication directors: Y. Weinand et C. Catsaros, 2020 EPFL Press Le Pavillon en bois du Théâtre de Vidy, under the direction of Yves Weinand; V. Baudriller, J. Gamerro, M. Jaccard, C. Robeller; 2017, PPURAdvanced Timber Structures - Architectural Designs and Digital Dimensioning, Y. Weinand, 2017, Birkhaüser, publié en trois langues (french : Structures Innovantes en Bois (2016); german : Neue Holztragwerke - Architektonische Entwürfe und digitale Bemessung (2017)Grubenmann Project / Projekt Grubenmann, Y. Weinand, 2016, Stiftung Grubenmann-SammlungTimber Project: Nouvelles formes d’architectures en bois, Y. Weinand, 2010, PPURArchitexto, Y. Weinand and D. Darcis, 2009, Editions Fourre-Tout, LiègeLe bois soudé, B. Stamm and Y. Weinand, 2004, Architecture Bois & DépendanceNew Modeling - projeter ensemble, Y. Weinand, 2003, PPUR Michel RappazAfter a PhD in solid state physics (1978) at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and a post-doc at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Michel Rappaz joined the Institute of Materials of EPFL in 1981. After two years in an engineering company, he came back to EPFL in 1984 where he was nominated Adjunct Professor in 1990 and Full Professor in 2003. He retired from EPFL in 2015 and is now Emeritus Professor and independent consultant for several industries and research centres.
His main interests are in phase transformations and solidification, in particular the coupling of macroscopic aspects of heat and mass transfer with microscopic aspects of microstructure and defect formation. Among his diverse achievements, one can mention in particular the development of cellular automata for grain structure predictions and of granular models for hot tearing formation in castings, the coupling of Finite Element method with microscopic models of nucleation and growth, the application of the phase field method to the understanding of various microstructures, the discovery of quasicrystal mediated-nucleation in alloys, and many other studies both fundamental at the microstructure-defect level and more applied at the level of processes.
Some of the software developments have been commercialized by a spin-off company founded by his group in 1991 (Calcom SA), now part of the French company ESI. Michel Rappaz initiated in 1992 an annual postgraduate course on solidification which has been attended by more than 900 participants from all over the world. He is presently collaborating closely with another spin-off company started from his group, Novamet SàrL.
Michel Rappaz has received several awards, in particular the Mathewson co-author award (1994) and author award (1997) of the American Mineral, Metals and Materials Society (TMS), the Koerber foundation award jointly with Profs Y. Bréchet and M. Asbby (1996), the Sainte-Claire Deville Medal (1996) and the Grand Medal (2011) from the French Materials Society, the Bruce Chalmers Award of TMS (2002), the Mc Donald Memorial Lecture award of Canada (2005), the FEMS European Materials Gold Medal (2013) and the Brimacombe Prize of TMS (2015). He is a highly-cited author of ISI, a fellow of ASM, IOP and TMS, and has co-authored more than 200 publications and two books.
René MonotD'origine vaudoise, René Monot est né à Lausanne le 10 août 1943; c'est dans cette ville qu'il effectue ses études secondaires. Il suit les cours de la section de physique de l'Ecole polytechnique de l'Université de Lausanne, où il obtient son diplôme en 1966. Il est ensuite assistant, puis premier assistant du prof. Jean-Pierre Borel sous la direction duquel il réalise une thèse de doctorat sur les propriétés magnétiques des petites particules d'argent de quelques nanomètres de diamètre. Après sa thèse, de 1975 à 1978, il est engagé à l'Université de Californie, à Berkeley (Etats-Unis) pour y poursuivre, dans le laboratoire du prof. W.D. Knight, une recherche sur le magnétisme des amas d'atomes.
Depuis son retour en Suisse, il travaille à l'Institut de physique expérimentale où il a la fonction d'adjoint scientifique dès 1981. Il est nommé professeur titulaire en 1985.
Il enseigne aux étudiants de la section électricité, l'introduction à la mécanique quantique et il est chargé du cours de physique des surfaces pour le 2e et 3e cycle. Ses projets de recherche portent sur la physique des amas d'atomes métalliques, des interactions molécules-surfaces et des stades initiaux de la croissance épitaxiale.
Christophe BallifChristophe Ballif is director of the Phototovoltaics and Thin Film Electronics Laboratoryb) (PV-Lab at the institute of microengineering (IMT) in Neuchâtel (part of the EPFL since 2009). The lab focus is on the science and technology of high efficiency heterojunction crystalline cells,so-called passivating contacts for solar cells, multi-junction solar cells include novel generation Perovskite on innovative optical high speed detector and on various macroelectronics application. It also deals with energy management with a focus on integration of solar electricity into the energy system. The PV-Lab has strongly contributed to technology transfer and industrialization of novel devices and full technology with numerous companies. Christophe Ballif graduated as a physicist from the EPFL in 1994, where he also obtained in 1998 his Phd degree working on novel PV materials. He accomplished his postdoctoral research at NREL (Golden, US) on compound semiconductor solar cells (CIGS and CdTe). He worked then at the Fraunhofer ISE (Ge) on crystalline silicon photovoltaics (monocrystalline and multi-crystalline) until 2003 and then at the EMPA in Thun (CH) before becoming full professor at the University of Neuchâtel IMT in 2004, taking over the chair of Prof. A. Shah. Since 2013, C.Ballif is also the director of the new CSEM PV-Center, also located in Neuchâtel. The CSEM PV-Center is focussing more on industrialisation and technology transfer in the field of solar energy, including solar electricity management and storage. At the core of the CSEM PV-center activities lies several "pilot lines" for various kinds of solar cells manufacturing, with a focus coating technologies, wet chemistry processes for crystalline silicon, metalisation techniques for solar cells, and a platform for developing "ideal packaging solutions and polymers" for PV modules. In addition, joined facitilites between CSEM and EPFL of over 800 m2 are available for modules manufacturing, measuring and accelerated aging. CSEM PV-center has also full team dedicated to storage and energy systems and operates a joined center with BFH in Biel for research on electrochemical storage. He (co-) authored over 500 journal and technical papers, as well as several patents. He is an elected member of the SATW, member of the scientific council of the Swiss AEE, and member of the board of the EPFL Energy center. In 2016, he recieved the Becquerel prize for his contributions to the field of high efficiency photovoltaics.
Paul MuraltPaul Muralt received a diploma in experimental physics in 1978 at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ETH in Zurich. He accomplished his Ph.D. thesis in the field of commensurate-incommensurate phase transitions at the Solid State Laboratory of ETH. In the years 1984 and 1985 he held a post doctoral position at the IBM Research Laboratory in Zurich where he pioneered the application of scanning tunneling microscopy to surface potential imaging. In 1987, after a stay at the Free University of Berlin, he joined the Balzers group in Liechtenstein. He specialized in sputter deposition techniques, and managed since 1991 a department for development and applications of Physical Vapor Deposition and PECVD processes. In 1993, he joined the Ceramics Laboratory of EPFL in Lausanne. AS group leader for thin films and MEMS devices, he specialized in piezoelectric and pyroelectric MEMS with mostly Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 and AlN thin film. His research interests are in thin film growth in general, and more specifically in property assessment of small ferroelectric structures, in integration issues of ferroelectric and other polar materials, property-microstructure relationships, and applications of polar materials in semiconductor and micro-electro-mechanical devices. More recently he extended his interests to oxide thin films of ionic conductors. The focus in piezoelectric thin films was directed towards AlN-ScN alloys. He gives lectures in thin film processing, micro fabrication, and surface analysis. He authored or co-authored more than 230 scientific articles. He became Fellow of IEEE in 2013. In 2005, he received an outstanding achievement award at the International Symposium on Integrated Ferroelectrics (ISIF), and in 2016 the B.C. Sawyer Memorial award.
Chairman of the International Workshops on Piezoelectric MEMS(http://www.piezomems2011.org/) Olivier MartinOlivier J.F. Martin received the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in physics in 1989 and 1994, respectively, from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland. In 1989, he joined IBM Zurich Research Laboratory, where he investigated thermal and optical properties of semiconductor laser diodes. Between 1994 and 1997 he was a research staff member at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich (ETHZ). In 1997 he received a Lecturer fellowship from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). During the period 1996-1999, he spent a year and a half in the U.S.A., as invited scientist at the University of California in San Diego (UCSD). In 2001 he received a Professorship grant from the SNSF and became Professor of Nano-Optics at the ETHZ. In 2003, he was appointed Professor of Nanophotonics and Optical Signal Processing at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne (EPFL), where he is currently head of the Nanophotonics and Metrology Laboratory and Director of the Microengineering Section.
