Philippe GilletPhilippe GILLET completed his undergraduate studies in Earth Science at Ecole normale supérieure de la rue dUlm (Paris). In 1983 he obtained a PhD in Geophysics at Université de Paris VII and joined Université de Rennes I as an assistant. Having obtained a State Doctorate in 1988, he became a Professor at this same university, which he left in 1992 to join Ecole normale supérieure de Lyon.
The first part of his research career was devoted to the formation of mountain ranges particularly of the Alps. In parallel, he developed experimental techniques (diamond anvil cells) to recreate the pressure and temperature prevailing deep inside planets in the lab. These experiments aim at understanding what materials make up the unreachable depths of planets in the solar system.
In 1997, Gillet started investigating extraterrestrial matter. He was involved in describing meteorites coming from Mars, the moon or planets which have disappeared today and explaining how these were expelled from their original plant by enormous shocks which propelled them to Earth. He also participated in the NASA Stardust program and contributed to identify comet grains collected from the tail of Comet Wild 2 and brought back to Earth. These grains represent the initial minerals in our solar system and were formed over 4.5 billion years ago. He has also worked on the following subjects:
Interactions between bacteria and minerals.
Solid to glass transition under pressure.
Experimental techniques: laser-heated diamond anvil cell, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction with synchrotron facilities, electron microscopy.
Philippe Gillet is also active in science and education management. He was the Director of the CNRS Institut National des Sciences de lUnivers (France), the President of the French synchrotron facility SOLEIL and of the French National Research Agency (2007), and the Director of Ecole normale supérieure de Lyon. Before joining EPFL he was the Chief of Staff of the French Minister of Higher Education and Research.
Selected publications:
Ferroir, T., L. Dubrovinsky, A. El Goresy, A. Simionovici, T. Nakamura, and P. Gillet (2010), Carbon polymorphism in shocked meteorites: Evidence for new natural ultrahard phases, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 290(1-2), 150-154.
Barrat J.A., Bohn M., Gillet Ph., Yamaguchi A. (2009) Evidence for K-rich terranes on Vesta from impact spherules. Meteoritics & Planetary Science, 44, 359374.
Brownlee D, Tsou P, Aleon J, et al. (2006) Comet 81P/Wild 2 under a microscope. Science, 314, 1711-1716.
Beck P., Gillet Ph., El Goresy A., and Mostefaoui S. (2005) Timescales of shock processes in chondrites and Martian meteorites. Nature 435, 1071-1074.
Blase X., Gillet Ph., San Miguel A. and Mélinon P. (2004) Exceptional ideal strength of carbon clathrates. Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 215505-215509.
Gillet Ph. (2002) Application of vibrational spectroscopy to geology. In Handbook of vibrational spectroscopy, Vol. 4 (ed. J. M. Chalmers and P. R. Griffiths), pp. 1-23. John Wiley & Sons.
Gillet Ph., Chen C., Dubrovinsky L., and El Goresy A. (2000) Natural NaAlSi3O8 -hollandite in the shocked Sixiangkou meteorite. Science 287, 1633-1636.
Katarzyna PierzchalaKatarzyna Pierzchala completed professional studies at the Faculty of Physics at University of Silesia and at the Medical University of Silesia, Poland. She obtained her BSc degree (2003) and MSc degree (2005) in Medical Physics from the University of Silesia, Poland. In 2010 she obtained her PhD degree in physics (biomedical physics) “Oxidative Stress on Human Cells in the Presence of Nano-Sized Titanium Dioxide” from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology at Lausanne (EPFL), Institute of Physics of Complex Matter, Switzerland. In 2013, she joined, as a Scientist, the Laboratory for Functional and Metabolic Imaging at EPFL, where she implemented the electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy (EPR) and optical and fluorescence microscopy to study the brain redox and antioxidant state in rodent models of human diseases ie. hepatic encephalopathy and the magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) of intact living cancerous cells to characterize their metabolic profile and metastatic potential and observe changes of MRS signals intensity associated to cells metabolism after in vitro chemotherapy to provide better understanding of the mechanisms of drug-cell interaction, with a view to offer appropriate treatment.
Francesco StellacciFrancesco Stellacci graduated in Materials Engineering at the Politecnico di Milano in 1998 with a thesis on photochromic polymers with Prof. Giuseppe Zerbi and Mariacarla Gallazzi. In 1999 he moved to the Chemistry Department of the University of Arizona for as a post-doc in the group of Joe Perry in close collaboration with the group of Seth Marder. In 2002 he moved to the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as an assistant professor. He was then promoted to associate without (2006) and with tenure (2009). In 2010 he moved to the Institute of Materials at EPFL as a full Professor. He holds the Alcan EP Chair. Francesco was one of the recipients of the Technology Review TR35 "35 Innovator under 35" award in 2005, and the Popular Science Magazine "Brilliant 10" award in 2007. He has been a Packard Fellow starting 2005.
Andras Kis2015− Associate professor, EPFL, STI, Institute of Electrical Engineering (IEL) and Materials Science and Engineering Institute (IMX)
2008−2015 Tenure-track assistant professor at EPFL, School of Engineering (STI), Institute of Electrical Engineering (IEL)
2004−2007 Postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, Physics Department in the group of Prof. Zettl
2000−2003 PhD student at EPFL, Faculty of basic sciences, Institute of physics of complex matter, group of Prof. Forró
1994−1999 MS, Physics, University of Zagreb, Croatia
1994 Baccalaureate, MIOC (Mathematical and Informational Educational Center) high school
